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Apparently some members of the far-right have figured it out! Environmentalists are communists! Being green is tantamount to an attack on "Western culture, and the Judeo-Christian and Islamic religions". Think this is just an American phenomenon? Think again...
comment posted at 8:52 AM on Jan-16-09

About those tunnels The media here had led me to believe that those tunnels were crude things that were used to smuggle rockets and explosives, but this photo essay from Foreign Policy, gives another take on what its been about
comment posted at 8:15 AM on Jan-15-09

Digging for the truth about Israel / Palestine. Why are so many people reluctant to discuss what is happening in Israel and Palestine?

“Israel was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust as a beacon of hope. But to really understand the country’s troubled present, we need journalists to look beyond one sided narratives and to offer up a more accurate picture of what’s happened in the past and what’s going on today.”

comment posted at 5:20 PM on Jan-14-09

Reading this could save you two days of intense suffering.
comment posted at 12:04 PM on Jan-14-09

The Buffalo Beast's 50 Most Loathsome People of 2008.
comment posted at 3:12 PM on Jan-12-09

To celebrate the Inauguration, Ben and Jerry's has issued a new ice cream flavor, Yes, PeCan, with profits donated to the Common Cause Education Fund. There's a Reddit thread for suggestions for flavors commemorating Bush/Cheney.
comment posted at 1:47 PM on Jan-12-09

Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches - "Physicist Alex Wissner-Gross says that performing two Google searches uses up as much energy as boiling the kettle for a cup of tea."
comment posted at 3:55 PM on Jan-11-09
comment posted at 4:34 PM on Jan-11-09

Dear President Bush, Thanks for the memories. You will be missed. Thanks for making people care. And don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Wishing you all the best, A Citizen.
comment posted at 10:49 PM on Jan-10-09

Worried about antibiotics in your beef? Organic vegetables (and pirated honey) may be no better. 90% of animal antibiotics are excreted as dung which is then used as fertilizer. The amounts are smaller but cumulative, particularly in potatoes, lettuce.
comment posted at 3:24 PM on Jan-10-09

Palestinian girl, Israeli soldier. It made me remember 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests.
comment posted at 1:45 PM on Jan-6-09

A nice photogallery, with descriptions, illustrating the progress of Moore's Law from a 1958 single-transistor Texas Instruments integrated circuit to the anticipated 2009 AMD Phenom II, with 758,000,000 transistors.
comment posted at 9:47 AM on Jan-6-09

I am a Palestinian refugee; my parents are refugees too, as well as my grandparents. I have been raised in a place called a refugee camp. With Israel still banning foreign Journalists from Gaza; read some of the Blogs from people inside or with friends and relatives inside the war zone. Then there is The electronic Intifada.
comment posted at 12:33 PM on Jan-4-09
comment posted at 3:43 PM on Jan-4-09
comment posted at 11:37 PM on Jan-4-09

Dear Israel: you picked wrong boat to mess with. Israeli patrol boats have rammed into and nearly capsized a relief vesssel sailing in international waters, bearing humanitarian medical aid to Gaza. Accompanying the international doctors and aid workers who comprised the heart of the mssion were several politicians, including former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, as well as several international journalists, such as Karl Penhaul of CNN and Othman Abu Battiri of Al Jazeera, who have used mobile video reporting to refute Israel's claims that the damage was somehow caused by those leading the relief mission. Shades of the USS Liberty... or Whale Wars?
comment posted at 1:41 PM on Jan-1-09
comment posted at 11:39 PM on Jan-1-09
comment posted at 8:28 AM on Jan-2-09

York University is no stranger to strikes (even breaking its own length record), and the latest is shaping up much like the previous - TA & Lecturers' union on the picket line, admin in the ugly concrete buildings, and undergrads looking cold and confused all around (YT). But since the last strike in 2001, a few things have changed. No, not the issues (same as always - living wages for TAs, job security for lecturers) or the effect (disruption of undergrad education) - but last time there were few discussion forums, no facebook groups or videos by the local newspaper, and definitely no (somewhat obvious, but still mildly entertaining) Apple ad parodies.
comment posted at 12:09 AM on Dec-19-08

Japanese cat humiliation. SLYT
comment posted at 9:13 AM on Dec-18-08

What the financial crisis means for sex, lipstick, beer, college endowments, Iceland, love and marriage, Spam, recycling, holiday parties, car sales, sports, baseball free agents, psychics, NASCAR and narcissism...
comment posted at 12:27 PM on Dec-15-08

Just Like The Movies. Michal Kosakowski reconstructs the morning of 9/11/01 completely through clips from Hollywood movies released before 9/11. More of Kosakowski's short films are available here.
comment posted at 10:56 AM on Dec-11-08

Women in the Middle East and Asia, sometimes have acid thrown on them in the street as a way of punishing them for breaking cultural mores. (caution: opens to disturbing photo) This is a phenomenon that we hear little about in the West. A few months back, some Stanford students collaborated to make a graphic novel available online to raise awareness. Semi-Double Post.
comment posted at 9:24 AM on Dec-8-08

DOOM is a 3D adventure game with arcade-style elements. It was programmed for computers running DOS Flash 10. Here's the plot: your character is a Space Marine on the planet Mars, who uses guns his fist, and even a chainsaw to kill monsters from another dimension.
comment posted at 8:00 AM on Dec-4-08

"Pretty girls are like cars that need a lot of oil." Alex Graven, 9, has had How to Talk to Girls, the runaway hit of the Soaring Hawk Elementary School book fair, picked up by HarperCollins. How do you spot these oil-guzzling cars? ""It is easy to spot pretty girls," Alex writes, "because they have big earrings, fancy dresses and all the jewelry."
comment posted at 3:06 PM on Dec-3-08

Second Great Depression? We should be so lucky. Or so Dmitry Orlov says. Orlov, an engineer who watched the collapse of the Soviet Union, argues that the United States is well into a similar process of collapse. In Orlov's model, collapse is divided into five stages: financial, commercial, political, social and cultural. The first one is currently happening, and the next two are guaranteed to follow; as for cultural collapse, that happened a long time ago, but people were to narcotised by consumerism to notice. And things look set to get very, very dire indeed, with runaway hyperinflation, shortages, the breakdown of political institutions, the fragmentation of the US, and, if the "social collapse" stage is reached, roaming gangs and ethnic cleansing.
comment posted at 12:43 PM on Dec-3-08

Set up by Hasidic Jews as Community Centres, there are 3000+ Chabad Houses around the globe. The recent terror attack at the Centre in Mumbai took the lives of 9 people, including a Rabbi and his wife. The rescue (YT) was not without contention. You may also remember this Bangkok Rabbi from his interview in 1 Giant Leap.
comment posted at 2:41 PM on Nov-30-08
comment posted at 11:00 AM on Dec-1-08

Je ne comprends pas anglais, Former Canadian PM Jean Chrétien forgets his second language as he and former NDP leader Ed Broadbent use their elder statesmen status to discuss bringing down the six week old Conservative government in Canada after the promised economic stimulus turned into cutting travel expenses, cancelling pay equity and the right to strike for federal workers, and changing the party funding law in favour of the ruling Conservatives under PM Stephen Harper. The opposition still vow to topple the government even though the funding change appears to have been dropped. But the largest opposition party is effectively leaderless and they need the Bloc Quebecois support. Could the next Prime Minister of Canada be Gilles Duceppe?
comment posted at 1:27 PM on Nov-28-08
comment posted at 2:48 PM on Nov-30-08

Tis the season for Shoplifting, when the unemployed, teens, professionals, kleptos, and political shoplifters jack, rack, nick, and stroke holiday gifts. The BBB anticipates a rise in light-fingered merchandising, but notes that on average, shoplifters get pinched only "once for every 48 times they steal." Retailers are fighting back in unusual ways. Wal-Mart, the oft-target of political shoplifters, aggressively guards its merchandise, while across the pond the Dutch approach the problem with bemusement.
comment posted at 8:01 PM on Nov-27-08

50 strange buildings of the world. What it says on the tin. via.
comment posted at 3:39 PM on Nov-27-08

Russian professor and information warrior, Igor Panarin, has predicted the collapse and breakup of the USA. (Potential artists' renderings 1 2) The interview was originally reported in the Russian newspaper, Izvestia. (Google Translated) The prediction has been met with varying levels of credulity, scoffed at by some and embraced by others. The prediction, which goes so far as to speculate exactly how the US might reorganize, was posted to Drudge and has offended many bloggers who, while excited by the prospects of secession, are insulted by the insinuation that the south may go Hispanic and not Confederate.
comment posted at 9:45 AM on Nov-26-08

Sentences were delivered yesterday in Israel's Neo-Nazi trial of the 8 members of "Patrol 36" who were active in and around Petah Tikvah.
comment posted at 11:48 AM on Nov-24-08
comment posted at 11:50 AM on Nov-24-08

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: --- The Turbaconducken.
comment posted at 1:52 PM on Nov-21-08

Remember those pesky left feet that kept washing up on Canada's West Coast? One of their counterparts finally showed up. The plot thickens with the knowledge that The Sixth Foot was a hoax...
comment posted at 12:23 PM on Nov-13-08

People took to the streets to celebrate Obama's victory in New York, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, Boulder, New Brunswick, Oakland, Philadelphia, Gainesville, Los Angeles, Boston, Portland, Atlanta, Cambridge, Madison, Richmond, Baltimore, Santa Cruz, and Washinton, D.C.
comment posted at 3:56 PM on Nov-5-08

Sen. Stevens (R, AK) found guilty of of seven corruption charges. Stevens was behind in the polls before this point anyway, so it looks like a solid Dem gain at this point. Palin has obviously thown him under the bus.
comment posted at 9:13 PM on Oct-27-08

Are you a Democrat who drinks lattes? eats arugula? Does the thought of another Republican president fill you with dread? Canada's E.L.I.T.E. immigration plan is right for you!
comment posted at 11:51 PM on Oct-25-08
comment posted at 10:19 AM on Oct-26-08

“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

The Atheist Bus Campaign rolls out today in London.
comment posted at 10:43 AM on Oct-21-08

A view from Iran: Golboo Fiuzi, a young resident of Tehran, talks to fellow Iranian citizens about why they think the US hasn't attacked yet, their political views, opinions about globalization and their lives under UN imposed sanctions.
comment posted at 11:05 AM on Oct-20-08
comment posted at 11:45 PM on Oct-20-08

Why I'd Be a Better VP than Sarah Palin
comment posted at 2:44 PM on Oct-11-08

Oasis have been accused of plagiarizing Cliff Richard. Does 'The Turning' have a certain resemblance to 'Devil Woman'? If so, it would not the first time...
comment posted at 7:19 AM on Oct-7-08

Trains of Russia, photos from Pavoroz.com, a site about the railways of Russia, the Baltics and the C.I.S. (Commonwealth of Independent States). More than 50 000 pictures of steam, diesel, and electric locomotives, EMU and DMU trains, draisines, stations, tracks, etc. The collection is updated daily. The Turkestan-Siberian railway.
comment posted at 6:32 AM on Oct-7-08

Imagine the worst, most foul thing you have ever smelled. An overpowering mix of rotting meat, old socks that haven't been washed for weeks - topped off with the pungent waft of an open sewer. Imagine being covered in the stuff as it is liberally sprayed from a water cannon. Then imagine not being able to get rid of the stench for at least three days, no matter how often you try to scrub yourself clean. Introducing Israel's new, non-lethal but highly effective and highly offensive weapon: Skunk.
comment posted at 10:23 AM on Oct-2-08

Chemical irritant empties Islamic Society of Greater Dayton's mosque. This after Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West appeared as a paid advertising insert in the Dayton Daily News, Springfield News-Sun, Hamilton JournalNews and Middletown Journal, all owned by Cox Ohio Publishing, on Monday, Sept. 22.
comment posted at 12:29 PM on Sep-29-08

Still considering your options in the Canadian federal election? Try The Undecided, a web site that compares platform planks from the five major parties and gives you the ability to compare your opinions and prioritize the issues. When you are done, you get an assessment of which party you are most closely aligned with. Of course if you are STILL undecided, there is always the Undecided Party..
comment posted at 12:19 AM on Sep-22-08