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The Albuquerque Bosque is on fire. Bosque is spanish for woods that grow along a river bank and these woods are within feet of homes of Albuquerque, New Mexico residents. The bosque is along the Rio Grande river that runs through the state's largest city and includes a nature center and towering cottonwood trees that are over 100's of years old. Yesterday and tonight over 1000 acres are going up like a match. The Rio Grande bosque is a state treasure (with a national wild refuge ). We now have seven fires in New Mexico. Albuquerque is losing a natural treasure tonight... very sad to hear this may be arson.
posted by jabo at 10:46 PM PST - 13 comments

Man exercises personal liberty to ride nearly naked. Within 2 months of the story he dies, likely falling off a cliff, after having been arrested for earlier for a lack of clothes. A tragedy. Who is willing to take his place? [Links from Jester69/#mefi]
posted by shepd at 9:09 PM PST - 8 comments

Google Toolbar 2.0 I can't live without my Google toolbar for IE on the PC (Safari's built-in Google-search, while less functional, takes care of me on the Mac). This new version of the Google toolbar features popup blocking, autofill, and a "blog this" button. What other browser toolbars/gizmos make life easier for Joe Websurfer?
posted by jdroth at 8:45 PM PST - 32 comments

Nuke components found in Baghdad back yard. U.S. officials say it is no smoking gun but investigators point out that there is no way they would ever have found these components buried in a barrel in a back yard under a rose garden for 12 years unless someone such as this Iraqi scientist came forward.
posted by Ron at 8:33 PM PST - 44 comments

Spent my lunch hour today in the company of Tate Liverpool and more particularly the Janet Cardiff installation Forty Part Motet: "Using (a) piece of secular music as a starting point and working with four male voices (bass, baritone, alto and tenor) and child sopranos, Cardiff has replaced each voice with an audio speaker. The speakers are set at an average head height and spaced in such a way that viewers can listen to different voices and experience different combinations and harmonies as they progress through the work." It's an example of art as experience, the viewer (or in this case listener's) perception of the work as important as the thing itself. [more]
posted by feelinglistless at 3:06 PM PST - 7 comments

RIAA: Stop, or we will sue fresh from its victory against Verizon, the RIAA gears up to go head to head with individual users of P2P. Run and hide!
posted by FearTormento at 2:51 PM PST - 17 comments

Scariest mug shot ever. So says the Smoking Gun. And hell, they should know.
posted by CunningLinguist at 2:06 PM PST - 78 comments

German propaganda. "Who is Adolf Hitler? The man from the people, for the people! The German front soldier who risked his life in 48 battles for Germany! What does Adolf Hitler want? Freedom and food for every decent working German! The gallows for profiteers, black marketeers and exploiters, regardless of religious faith or race! Why is Adolf Hitler not allowed to speak? Because he is ruthless in uncovering the rulers of the German economy, the international bank Jews their lackeys, the Democrats, Marxists, Jesuits and Free Masons! Because he wants to free the workers from the domination of race! Working Germans! Demand the lifting of the illegal ban on his speaking!"
posted by the fire you left me at 1:57 PM PST - 24 comments

Today marks one hundred years since the birth of George Orwell. He may have died in 1950, just after finishing his master work, but he has remained culturally relevant ever since, and never more so than during the past two years.
posted by Silune at 1:39 PM PST - 6 comments

Victorian Visions of the Year 2000.
posted by crunchland at 12:34 PM PST - 20 comments

Railway hotels. To go with yesterday's post, today I bring you the hotel's that were built alongside the railway. Some of the gradients were so acute that when the train ascended or descended, the table settings and food flew in all directions. The weight of the cars added to the problem, as they were too much for the locomotives of the day, and the cars had to be left at the beginning of the railway's path up the mountain passes. Obviously passengers needed to be fed so a solution had to be found as soon as possible. Have you been to any of these hotels, and if so, what was your impression? Do you have any favorite hotels?
posted by ashbury at 11:03 AM PST - 7 comments

Sheer Nuttiness... According to the Washington Post, the RIAA is following up on the successful suit to force Verizon to identify four file traders, with a series of mass-lawsuits targeting potentially hundreds of file traders. With 57 million active file traders in the P2P networks alone, this is the beginning of an ugly new future.
posted by jonson at 10:50 AM PST - 68 comments

Saranda's Story. 'My name is Saranda and I am 13 years old. I moved to Liverpool from Kosovo three years ago ... '
posted by plep at 10:47 AM PST - 5 comments

We're all gonna die! But how? Wired breaks down the likelihood of ten (and a half) options.
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:59 AM PST - 18 comments

Dancing dog, schmancing dog. Walking dogs is where it's at (you'll see). A dog tale deserving of a 'standing' ovation. I still say, dogs rule! [video link under the last image on the left]
posted by Witty at 9:38 AM PST - 11 comments

New Zealand legalises prostitution...which means frustrated Kiwi's can now pay a woman for sex, as opposed to chasing sheep....(j/k)
posted by tomcosgrave at 9:28 AM PST - 27 comments

It's Summer Camp Time!
Looking at summer camps to send your brats beloved children to for a week personal sanity at home? Look no further! Here it is!
Students will discover the deception of evolution, the importance of purity and morals in a free society, and the pagan connection to the radical environmental movement. Your teen will learn the importance of prayer and action. Most importantly, students will learn that in order to restore America, we must return America to Christ.
Now get out of here and go sign your little tykes up today! It's the patriotic and Christian thing to do. And don't forget the camp needs volunteers.
posted by nofundy at 7:40 AM PST - 54 comments

The tiny Picture Book Of Foods is an invaluable resource for true foodies everywhere. Learn where many of your favorite foods really come from. There are also growing secrets, educational cross-sections, and recipe tips. And pancakes.
posted by iconomy at 7:39 AM PST - 9 comments

Vatican Art is now viewable online at the Vatican website. View the Sistine Chapel and Raphael's Rooms in all their glory (sort of).
posted by nthdegx at 5:48 AM PST - 5 comments

Wallace Cartwright, a lobster fisherman from Cape Breton Island, describes his recent encounter with a sea serpent: "It had a head on it like a sea turtle, and it had a body like a snake...about as big around as a five-gallon bucket." Perhaps Nessie has relatives abroad? The more likely explanation, however, is that Wallace had a rare glimpse of one of these strange creatures of the deep.
posted by debralee at 4:54 AM PST - 15 comments

They're not just puppets, they're gay puppets! Orbitz.com, the travel site that is the #2 pop-under advertiser on the Web recently launched a series of TV commercials obviously inspired by the marionettes on "Thunderbirds", complete with a related 'microsite' warning: flash animation and characters whose eyes follow your mouse. Now, in order to promote their "gay travel" sub-site, they've slightly altered one of their ads to change who's eye-ing the "eye candy". Enough of a shock to make me reverse my Tivo, but a welcome change from the "gay panic" themes of recent spots for alcoholic beverages, like Bailey's Irish Cream and Smirnoff Triple Black Ice ("The Brad" ad is particularly weird to me, since among us old skool bloggers, The Brad was pointing out "gay panic" in TV ads back in August 2000.
posted by wendell at 1:59 AM PST - 19 comments

Getting The Hell Out Of Africa: An excellent article by R.W. Johnson describes the forces now driving out many African whites and quietly despairs. Post-colonial blues are sad and riddled with guilt and lost hopes. How far does collective guilt impinge on the individual? What if there is no guilt at all? What is the white man and woman's place in 21st Century Africa? I wonder whether it isn't still too early to think clearly about the many delicate issues involved. But then an all-black Africa wouldn't be Africa. Would it?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:27 AM PST - 18 comments

'Superweeds' signal setback for genetically modified crops.
posted by thedailygrowl at 12:08 AM PST - 22 comments