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Where did all the bananas go? Bananas are awesome. Popular Science has an article about how they are going extinct. Apparently in the early 1900's the main variety of banana died out and was replaced by what we know today. According to this article, it's happening again.

o/~ Work all night on a drink of rum
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Stack banana till de mornin' come
Daylight come and me wan' go home o/~

comment posted at 1:51 AM on Sep-20-05

You say bodyline, I say leg theory. Either way, the origins of one of sport's most enduring rivalries (leading to a near diplomatic crisis) make for a fascinating read to the budding cricket enthusiast. No wonder people turned out in their thousands to queue in the early hours for the final day of another nail-biting test. It's turning into a hell of an ashes series.
comment posted at 3:02 AM on Aug-16-05

The Ashes Starts Today
You can listen live online and get more background here, and in case all you folks in the US are feeling a little left out, here's an interesting article about how, until the late 19th century, you used to play as much cricket as baseball!
comment posted at 3:36 AM on Jul-21-05
comment posted at 6:55 AM on Jul-21-05
comment posted at 7:11 AM on Jul-21-05
comment posted at 8:03 AM on Jul-21-05

We are not afraid. If you want to understand London in the aftermath, here it is.
comment posted at 2:15 AM on Jul-13-05
comment posted at 4:52 AM on Jul-13-05

London Underground Bombing 'Exercises' Took Place at Same Time as Real Attack
According to a BBC Radio 5 interview (aired on the evening of July 7th) with Peter Power, Managing Director of a consultancy agency with government and police connections, Mr. Power said his firm was actively running an exercise for an unnamed company that revolved around the London Underground being bombed at the same times and locations as happened in real life on the morning of July 7th.
Power told the host that at the exact same time that the London bombings were taking place, his company was running a 1,000 person strong exercise which drilled the London Underground being bombed at the exact same locations, at the exact same times, as it unfolded on that morning.
Power is a former Scotland Yard official and at one time was attached to the Anti Terrorist Branch.
More inside....
comment posted at 1:45 PM on Jul-10-05

Major Incident on London Underground reported. Anyone have any further information?
comment posted at 4:50 AM on Jul-7-05
comment posted at 5:10 AM on Jul-7-05
comment posted at 5:11 AM on Jul-7-05

Blair wins third term in UK overcoming public outcry against his handling of the war in Iraq. His Labour party was elected despite attracting votes from only 22% of those eligible to do so.
comment posted at 3:59 AM on May-6-05

London Underground Warning - very bad language and 750k but well crafted critique of the state of the transport system in London.
comment posted at 8:50 AM on Feb-12-05

Xylophone from Limmy.com Totally pointless, yet strangely addicting. (NSFW)
comment posted at 5:20 AM on Feb-8-05
comment posted at 5:25 AM on Feb-8-05

I resign. So there.
comment posted at 2:24 AM on Jan-11-05

These days the kids have all the fashion fun. Pottymouth baby tees, baby tees with bling, and even last years poncho fad is covered. Back in my day the shirts didn't get any funnier than my "made in Germany".
comment posted at 6:03 AM on Jan-7-05
comment posted at 7:37 AM on Jan-7-05

"No soup for you! Only salad!" The Soup Nazi stars in a Center for Consumer Freedom ad about overeating and the "calorie curmudgeons" trying to regulate it.
comment posted at 8:59 AM on Oct-21-04

KEEP YOUR FUCKIN' LIMEY HANDS OFF OUR ELECTION. A follow up to this post.
comment posted at 7:42 AM on Oct-18-04

In September 2001 the FDA warned Merck, makers of the painkiller Vioxx, for engaging in a promotional campaign that minimized "potentially serious cardiovascular findings." The previous year, Merck spent $161 million on Vioxx advertising (more than Pepsi or Budweiser spent on advertising that year). Earlier this year, a securities class action complaint was filed on behalf of several Merck investors alleging the company engaged in a marketing campaign that included false and misleading statements concerning the safety profile of Vioxx and that company insiders sold personally held shares of Merck for over $175 million in proceeds. Today, Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market.
comment posted at 12:29 PM on Sep-30-04

Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks tried to do Choose Your Own Adventure books one better with D&D-style rules. These massively single-player games, released in Britain, absorbed '80s nerds into the kind of murky, dead-serious fantasy recently parodied by Trogdor, in a decade when interactive fiction was on the rise. A bunch of the Gamebooks are now available to play online. Hang on to those healing potions.
comment posted at 1:43 AM on Sep-15-04

These images caused a great debate among my antipodean circle in London whether they are real or have been photoshopped. As far as we can gather it does exist. But it is surreal - and only in the UK surely would something like this be real.
comment posted at 2:22 AM on Sep-8-04
comment posted at 4:46 AM on Sep-8-04

Geography Olympics "Thanks to its global accessibility, the Internet is the perfect medium to hold an international competition such as The Geography Olympics. To join the challenge in support of your country, you simply need to select which country you will be representing and take the quiz. The quiz consists of trying to locate 10 randomly selected countries on a map of the world. It is different every time."
comment posted at 3:36 AM on Sep-2-04

Alternative Olympic medal tally from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, ranking countries by population per gold medal. (Updated daily for the duration of the games.)
comment posted at 4:57 AM on Aug-25-04

Top 25 Celebrities Turned Politicians
comment posted at 4:08 AM on Jul-20-04

Flashback: Margaret Thatcher writes about Ronald Reagan. President Reagan saw instinctively that pessimism itself was the disease and that the cure for pessimism is optimism. He set about restoring faith in the prospects of the American dream — a dream of boundless opportunity built on enterprise, individual effort, and personal generosity. He infused his own belief in America's economic future in the American people. That was farsighted. It carried America through the difficult early days of the 1981-82 recession, because people are prepared to put up with sacrifices if they know that those sacrifices are the foundations of future prosperity.
comment posted at 10:19 AM on Jun-7-04

Now that the terrorists are all caught, it's time to go back to attacking the real problem in America: Ravers.

"The Ecstasy Awareness Act (H.R. 2962) would throw anyone in jail who "profits monetarily from a rave or similar electronic dance event knowing or having reason to know" some event-goers may use drugs at the event. Similarly, Section 305 of the CLEAN-UP Act (H.R. 834) makes it a federal crime - punishable by up to nine years in prison - to promote "any rave, dance, music, or other entertainment event, that takes place under circumstances where the promoter knows or reasonably ought to know that a controlled substance will be used or distributed."

ProtectLiveMusic.org has been setup to combat these proposed laws. The idea of busting anyone that promotes a concert where drugs might show up in the jackets of attendees sounds like a good safe law that would never be abused, right? On the bright side, we're now one bill away from Phish and the Dead never touring ever again. :) [via furdlog]
comment posted at 9:40 AM on Apr-27-04
comment posted at 1:19 PM on Apr-27-04

Diaper Free! Natural Infant Hygiene and Elimination Communication are terms coined by author, Ingrid Bauer, to define an ancient, natural childcare practice for contemporary parents. They describe a gentle, compassionate and practical way to care for a baby's elimination needs from infancy, with or without diapers.
comment posted at 9:16 AM on Apr-22-04
comment posted at 10:11 AM on Apr-22-04
comment posted at 11:54 AM on Apr-22-04

The coffins that George Bush doesn't want you to see. The Memory Hole filed a Freedom of Information Act request for photographs of American servicemen and women who died in Iraq. After an initial refusal, the request was granted. Over a hundred US troops have been killed in action in the last month alone.
comment posted at 5:07 AM on Apr-22-04

Food From Sweden.
comment posted at 2:30 AM on Apr-21-04
comment posted at 10:04 AM on Apr-21-04
comment posted at 12:47 PM on Apr-21-04

New Zealand critic blasts LOTR. Big budget movie special effects have overshadowed the timeless are of storytelling and character development. "..The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is, as a work of cinematic art, ham-fisted, shallow, bombastic and laughably overrated.." [More Quotes inside]
comment posted at 3:38 PM on Apr-9-04

The PETA sinks to a new low. This time drawing parallels between the gruesome Pickton murders and the the slaughter of pigs for meat. Many of the human remains of Pickton's victims are still being found at the Pickton pig farm. They were drugged and dragged across the room... Their struggles and cries went unanswered... They were slaughtered and their heads sawed off... Their body parts were refrigerated... Their bones were discarded.
comment posted at 9:23 AM on Apr-8-04

With several anti-Semitic incidents in the past week or two in Toronto, why would Toronto's York University suspend its local Hillel due to clashes over Israeli-Palestinian conflict debates in a hypocritical move that fails to address demonstration and violence-related offenses by Muslim groups? Sure it's Canada and no one cares, but should Canadian Jews start being afraid? (The second article may be one-sided, but the last line presents an ominous fact.)
comment posted at 9:58 AM on Mar-26-04

Blunkett charges miscarriage of justice victims ‘food and lodgings’ We locked you up in jail for 25 years and you were innocent all along? That’ll be £80,000 please.
comment posted at 9:35 AM on Mar-17-04

opposition party wins spanish elections. democracy can be somewhat irritating when decisions made against the will of the majority come back to haunt you. especially when trying to fool your people with baseless arguments, such as moral convictions that eta were behind the attacks. ever more curious about those wmd, or imminent threats, or, er, the intent of developing nuclear capabilities, in november.
comment posted at 9:57 AM on Mar-15-04

Betrayed by Europe: An Expatriate’s Lament Journalist, novelist, and translator Nidra Poller, an American ex-pat who has been living in Paris with her family since 1972, writes in the latest issue of Commentary about her painful decision to leave her adopted homeland for the US. The main reason? Poller and her family are Jewish and scared for their lives. Her poignant essay is not just another report on the disturbing levels of anti-semitism in France or yet another French Jew abandoning the country for safer turf, but an examination of the power of hope (and inertia) in our lives, even when intellectually one sees no reason for hope: I'm being treated to a poignant lesson in European and Jewish history. The 30's: why did they stay? Why didn’t they run for their lives? Couldn’t they see what was happening? I see before me a vivid demonstration of the deep roots we dig to make our lives bloom, the intricate biology of a human life, irrigated with the lifeblood of a community, inextricably connected to a society, born of life to give life to keep life alive. Leaving is not packing up and tipping your hat goodbye. It is tearing live flesh out of a living matrix. A powerful and disturbing testimony.
comment posted at 10:28 AM on Mar-14-04
comment posted at 12:54 PM on Mar-14-04

My Hell in Camp X-ray. The five British detainees released from Camp X-ray are back in the UK and have talked to the press. They allege physical and mental abuse in exclusive interviews with British tabloid, 'The Mirror' and ITV news channel.
comment posted at 2:16 PM on Mar-12-04

The UK's Channel 4 is to court controversy with a provocative advert littered with swear words in which the word "c**t" is heard nine times in the space of just 90 seconds. Watch it here (NSFW with speakers on!)
comment posted at 3:52 AM on Mar-12-04
comment posted at 5:46 AM on Mar-12-04

How the Left views the Right, as viewed by the Southern Baptist Press. “I don't get it,” said the movie critic, “the people aren't listening to us... don't all those unwashed cretins out there in flyover country understand that we're the ones who tell them what they can watch?”
comment posted at 2:08 AM on Mar-11-04

Swedish town all buys volvos on the same day...coincidence?

This car was bought by the same town on the same day. Watch the cool (but large) flash video documentary. Or download it here: Quicktime or Windows Media.

Is it collective unconscious? Yeah, I know, I'm buying into the merchandising wagon. But it's an interesting documentary -- if it's true.
comment posted at 2:08 AM on Mar-8-04