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Harry and the Potters was the first wizard rock band but inspired other wizard rock bands such as Draco and the Malfoys, The Whomping Willows, The Dark Markers, Cousin Wizardface, The Hungarian Horntails, Bella's Love, The Prisoners Of Azkaban and Ginny and the Weasleys." also check out this, this, this, and this.
posted by alon at 11:36 PM PST - 51 comments

Fans of Knights of the Dinner Table, a badly drawn cult comic book that a great many of table top gamers have taken dearly to their hearts, will probably be very happy to know that some of the series best ever strips have been turned into a series of pretty cool flash videos.
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:56 PM PST - 11 comments

Where's Waldo the Vodka? Absolut Search: You have two minutes to find 82 vodka bottles in this crowded little illustration of a slice o' New York life. (Flash; and, of course, preceded by an age-verification page. Don't even think about lying, you naughty kids.)
posted by Gator at 4:59 PM PST - 30 comments

PornoTube - it's like YouTube, only for porn! [so NSFW]
posted by c:\awesome at 4:25 PM PST - 127 comments

The Great Chinese Road Trip !
Beijing to Three Gorges Dam to Shennongjia to Nanyang etc.
posted by Tlogmer at 4:15 PM PST - 8 comments

Unabridged audio readings (by celebrities) of Dr Seuss stories: Yertle the Turtle (7min). Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! (2min). One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (8min). I Can Read With My Eyes Shut (2min). I'm Not Going to Get Up Today (3min). Oh Say Can You Say? (8min). The Cat in the Hat (8min). Green Eggs and Ham (5min). Hop on Pop (5min). Fox in Socks (7min). Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are (8min). Dr. Seuss's ABC (5min). The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (9min). Clicking Sample is ample you see, the first 10 mins are free to you and me.
posted by stbalbach at 11:39 AM PST - 24 comments

“You know, I don’t think there’s a single piece of meat in this stew. Looks like meat. Tastes like meat. It isn’t meat at all. Doubleplus good!” ~ George Orwell: 1984
posted by augustweed at 11:29 AM PST - 54 comments

A collection of YouTube videos documenting the top 5 goals of the World Cup to this point. I mostly agree with the list; to me, it just doesn't get any better than Maxi Rodriguez's overtime goal vs. Mexico. Vintage World Cup excitement.
posted by charmston at 10:52 AM PST - 49 comments

Against Pandas: "Pandas are endangered because they are utterly incompetent... Pandas are badly designed, undersexed, overpaid and overprotected. They went up an evolutionary cul-de-sac and it is too late to reverse."
posted by kliuless at 10:50 AM PST - 57 comments

Net neutrality hurts consumers, and Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) gets it completely: "I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?" Huh? Enlightening audio of the entire Jabberwocky-esque speech here, as he "explains" why he voted against a proposal that would have required broadband providers to give their competitors the same speeds and quality of service as they give to themselves or their partners.
posted by youarenothere at 9:32 AM PST - 74 comments

The Jackie Robinson of architecture. An orphaned African American boy from downtown Los Angeles, Paul Revere Williams wanted to be an architect, and when he mentioned his career goal the high school guidance counselor ”stared at me with as much astonishment as he would have had I proposed a rocket flight to Mars... Whoever heard of a Negro being an architect?”. Therefore, Williams learned to read and draw upside down -- he knew that white clients would not sit next to him -- graduated from USC and in 1924 became the first certified African American architect west of the Mississippi. In a 50-year long extraordinary career, he designed landmarks like the Theme restaurant at Los Angeles International Airport (with Welton Becket), the LA County Courthouse, the Hollywood YMCA, Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, restored the Beverly Hills Hotel. Some of his most interesting buildings, like the La Concha Motel in Las Vegas have either been razed to the ground or, like the "Batman house", aka 160 S San Rafael mansion in Pasadena, have been destroyed by fire. Now, Williams' historic Morris Landau House has been cut into 21 separate pieces and sits in a Santa Clarita storage yard, rotting away. More inside.
posted by matteo at 9:25 AM PST - 25 comments

Llama Drill Team. Yes, it's true. Every June at the Maine Fiber Frolic, which takes place over a full weekend at the Windsor Fairgrounds on Rt. 32, a cadre of camelids and their handlers (who range in age from grade-schoolers to retirees) perform carefully choreographed routines. According to news reports, music for this year's program included marches by John Philip Sousa and Elton John and Tim Rice's "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" (Photos here, here and here.) But Maine isn't the only place you can catch one of these barnyard extravaganzas. Ohio's well-known "All-Star Llama Drill Team" (established in the mid-1990s) are a fixture at the Buckeye State's 17-day state fair, which also features a llama costume contest and a llama obstacle course. What's more, the troupe has traveled around the Midwest to perform at, for example, a camelid convention in Minnesota. [more inside]
posted by GrammarMoses at 8:48 AM PST - 7 comments

freedb.org is closing down. After the main developers quit yesterday, freedb will shut down "in the forseeable future".
posted by scruss at 8:18 AM PST - 27 comments

Nature has a somewhat technical but free supplement on stem cells (alongwith a podcast and related blog).
posted by Gyan at 8:12 AM PST - 6 comments

A fairly comprehensive tour of what's left of the historic Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
posted by loquacious at 7:04 AM PST - 4 comments

Inside the Pentagon, senior commanders have increasingly challenged the President’s plans, according to active-duty and retired officers and officials. The generals and admirals have told the Administration that the bombing campaign will probably not succeed in destroying Iran’s nuclear program. They have also warned that an attack could lead to serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States. A crucial issue in the military’s dissent, the officers said, is the fact that American and European intelligence agencies have not found specific evidence of clandestine activities or hidden facilities; the war planners are not sure what to hit. “The target array in Iran is huge, but it’s amorphous,” a high-ranking general told me. “The question we face is, When does innocent infrastructure evolve into something nefarious?” The high-ranking general added that the military’s experience in Iraq, where intelligence on weapons of mass destruction was deeply flawed, has affected its approach to Iran. “We built this big monster with Iraq, and there was nothing there. This is son of Iraq,” he said.

The Last Stand
See also Iran: war by October?
See also The countdown to war
See also Iran: Consequences Of A War
posted by y2karl at 6:47 AM PST - 62 comments

Best designed stuff of '06. The Industrial Design Excellence Awards. Winners include the 2 second tent, a new coffin and the hover creeper. Want more design? See what shaking in ecodesign, gadgetry, or concept cars. Perhaps you just want to know what's cool or what those crafty Germans are up to. Then again, maybe it's all just too much to handle.
posted by cubby at 4:48 AM PST - 22 comments

A video broadcast of György Ligeti's Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes (AVI, French), with helpful background on the controversial piece located here. For those who know French, you may also be interested in 1993's György Ligeti: Portrait, A Documentary by Michel Follin, showing Ligeti as "the displaced cosmopolitan", through the metaphor of train ride through the European countryside. These and many other avant-garde films can be found at Ubuweb, including features with William Burroughs, a recent "performance" of Cage's 4'33", and Varése and Le Corbusier's 1958 World Fair collaboration Poême électronique, a 400-speaker soundspace installation predating later, more experimental feedback pieces.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:56 AM PST - 14 comments

Why Vegetarians should be force fed lard
posted by Mutant at 2:32 AM PST - 78 comments

Project Aon is the internet-based revival of the Lone Wolf series of fantasy gamebooks, first published in 1984 and now in the process of being released online (with the authour's blessing); also available is an atlas, colouring book, and graphic novel. There is also a new traditional RPG being published in dead-tree form.
posted by DataPacRat at 2:21 AM PST - 18 comments

Invasion of the digg-alikes - if you like advertising, see marktd or adveracio.us . If you fancy brainy stuff see braindigg. If you like to spy on blogs there's blinklist and blogniscent. There's even a chinese digg. If none if these tempt you build your own digg-clone. [a lot via]
posted by dabitch at 2:20 AM PST - 11 comments

"We take clowns breaking into a nuclear facility serious in McLean County."
posted by Smedleyman at 1:31 AM PST - 11 comments