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A high ranking FARC leader, Paul Reyes, was killed during a Columbian raid into Ecuador. Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, responded and ordered ten battalions to the Columbian border, threatening a key regional ally of the United States. Some think it is just more bluster by Chavez. Meanwhile Air Force 2 is in Aruba; which is just 18 miles off the coast. Also Exxon-Mobil was recently cut off from Venezuela's oil.
posted by humanfont at 9:40 PM PST - 50 comments

Trent Reznor releases a new Nine Inch Nails album out of the fucking blue called Ghosts. The first 9 tracks are free, and it's on The Pirate Bay. The whole thing is $5 (with a slew of other order options) which you can get on their website (which is getting hammered right now), or on Amazon. The digital downloads are 320kbps MP3/FLAC/Apple Lossless. All DRM-free. [more inside]
posted by booticon at 9:37 PM PST - 88 comments

Lost America is a purdy website featuring night photography of ghost towns, urban exploration, decommissioned military facilities, airplane graveyards, and other roadside abandonments of the American west.
posted by dhammond at 9:00 PM PST - 22 comments

After taking possession of a brand spankin' new Boeing 777-300ER airliner, the pilot decided to celebrate by buzzing the airfield, landing gear retracted, at 28 feet above the ground [YouTube]. Killjoy airline executives promptly fired his ass.
posted by LarryC at 8:52 PM PST - 47 comments

Be off, ye hopeful mouse, but mind yourself;
Icarus were the friend of honeybees,
On borrowed wings he sought his own relieve,
And in the sun of his exub'rant flight,
His friendships' worth was counted not a mite.

A lost play of Shakespeare? No. Even better! An adaptation of "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" in five acts of blank verse. This is why I love the Internet.
posted by grumblebee at 6:43 PM PST - 29 comments

The Hagakure, written by Yamamoto Tsunemoto in the early 1700s, is a guide to being a warrior and servant in a decadent world. It's probably known best to Westerners, at least indie-film folk and Forest Whitaker fans, as being the favorite text of the hero of Ghost Dog. Study it well and you could be as cool as Ghost Dog. (NSFW) [more inside]
posted by Bookhouse at 5:33 PM PST - 20 comments

Top ten chemistry videos. (Wired, YouTube)
posted by loquacious at 5:32 PM PST - 12 comments

Stylish Blight (slideshow of awesome live/work architecture office) The outside says pure urban squalor, while the inside is pure awesomeness. Full story in today's NYT about the project. (via beebo)
posted by mathowie at 5:31 PM PST - 25 comments

One dog, no pony. (Flash)
posted by OmieWise at 3:39 PM PST - 21 comments

VVork is a blog showcasing contemporary art.
posted by sveskemus at 3:37 PM PST - 11 comments

What do you call two (or more) songs with overlapping verses? I don't know. But here's a great example. (Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Single link youtube post. Enjoyment not guaranteed. Your mileage may vary.)
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 3:09 PM PST - 27 comments

Probably no one really needs a toaster with a rotating lid, motorized bread carriage, and illuminating neons, but the idea of setting its operation to music was an act of pure inspiration. [more inside]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:41 PM PST - 49 comments

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - I'm A Little Dinosaur
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - New England
Jonathan Richman - Now Is Better Than Before
Spring is in the air today and here are a few slices of vintage Jonathan just because... [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 12:18 PM PST - 45 comments

YouTube Hijacking: A RIPE NCC RIS case study is the definitive look at how actions of Pakistan Telecom caused the global outage of YouTube Sunday the 24th of Feb. 2008. This incident has exposed weaknesses of the Border Gateway Protocol as is outlined by Danny McPherson from Arbor Networks as well as on the Renesys blog.
posted by gen at 11:41 AM PST - 33 comments

Apostrophe Atrophy highlights dumb quotes appearing in print, an unforgivable graphic design gaffe.
Just toggle the checkbox in InDesign/Quark already!
posted by porn in the woods at 10:45 AM PST - 114 comments

Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics... again! For the 12th straight year, this legendary group of music nerds from Hoboken, NJ encamps to the studios of local free form radio station WFMU to play, on the spot, three full hours of listener-requested covers. The request show, part of the station's annual pledge drive, happens tonight (Sunday, March 2) from 5-8 pm EST, and thanks to the wonder that is the internet you can listen (128k MP3 stream) and pledge live from anywhere in the world (or catch the real broadcast in FM at 91.1 in NYC / New Jersey and 90.1 in the Hudson Valley, Catskills, Western NJ and Eastern Penn). [more inside]
posted by kowalski at 6:36 AM PST - 46 comments

The year is 1965: Groucho Marx takes the Hollywood Palace stage to introduce (in typically gag-laced fashion) the next number on the program, to be sung by none other than his 18-year-old daughter, Melinda Marx. What follows is, arguably, right up there with some of the worst songs ever written, performed by Melinda and her backup singers in some of the most excruciatingly bad choreography ever seen. But this is Groucho's daughter we're talking about here, so I just had to share it with you: The East Side of Town. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:21 AM PST - 47 comments

"I ask forgiveness to all who felt betrayed." A Belgian writer has admitted that she made up her best-selling memoir and that she did not trek 1,900 miles as a child across Europe with a pack of wolves in search of her deported parents during World War II. More at Slate. Here's an excellent portal about feral children. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 5:45 AM PST - 63 comments

Jean Ritchie, Mother of folk music. Abigail and Balis Ritchie of Viper, Perry County, Kentucky had 14 children, and Jean was the youngest... [more inside]
posted by ethel at 2:57 AM PST - 11 comments

Her actions were juvenile and libelous, but they may have gone too far as well.
posted by Crotalus at 12:19 AM PST - 54 comments