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Adopt-a-Pagan-Soldier - No pagans in foxholes? Think again! Meanwhile, the Adopt-a-Soldier movement gains momentum. Heed this well, opponents of the ongoing invasion (or liberation) of Iraq: US troops did not engineer the plan for a "Pax Americana" which underlies the US action in Iraq. No, they were pulled away from their families and their jobs, and lack basic necessities: such as SPF-30 sunscreen, and chapstick. Send them a care package. And while you are at it, why not donate to the UN Refugee Fund set up to cope with an expected 1 millon or so refugees, and a possible humanitarian disaster, in Iraq?
posted by troutfishing at 9:39 PM PST - 23 comments

The Los Angeles Times goes multimedia. For the past few weeks, the LA Times has begun a significant push into offering video, audio, and interactive Flash on their website. One of the most interesting aspects is that the paper has moved one step beyond simply replaying AP Television clips as many sites have done; the LA Times writers are stand before the cameras and microphones themselves and report stories in a stuttering, non-hairsprayed, introverted demeanor that I find very refreshing, though so far I have gleaned very little additional information from it. When does (or can) this mode of journalism on the web rise above gimmickry or 'just because we can' and add value to a written article? Can video/tv news rise above mere spectacle?
posted by 4easypayments at 8:46 PM PST - 3 comments

ElfTrance. High Bandwidth Elf Goodness.
posted by homunculus at 8:12 PM PST - 10 comments

- "But will people be killed, Daddy?"
- "Nobody you know, darling. Just foreign people."
This hypothetical dialogue created by british writer John Le Carré in an article for the Times Online makes me wonder if there are people who really think of this world with that distance of the reality. By the way, the whole Carré's article has interesting insights about the ongoing war (although it was written two months before its beginning).
posted by nandop at 5:32 PM PST - 19 comments

Why would you purchase a former missile base? To manufacter LSD, of course.
posted by jdaura at 5:29 PM PST - 16 comments

Wonder about those towers behind Wolf Blitzer? I have, as I'm sure you have, seen a lot of the three sculptural towers behind the various newscasters transmitting from Kuwait City. They're quite beautiful -- award winning -- water towers (holding 4500 cubic meters). Built in 1979 by swedes, they are the largest and most visible part of a 100,000 cubic meter water storage system, which also includes the mushrooms along the beaches.
posted by zpousman at 4:25 PM PST - 9 comments

The Moon mating of the coral has begun. So it's time for a little Autumn magic. The fagus is turning, our devils are beginning their mating marathons and our fat little fairies have all the jumpers they need. The Scribbly Gum website celebrates some of nature's seasonal events in Australia.
posted by Tarrama at 4:01 PM PST - 9 comments

It is no accident that the core countries of "Old Europe," France and Germany, oppose us. "It is no accident that the core countries of Old Europe, France and Germany, oppose us. Between them, they have been responsible for every major European conflict since the Napoleonic era. Those who now accuse us of aggression bear the weight of hundreds of millions of corpses." What a superb piece of writing.
posted by ParisParamus at 3:34 PM PST - 91 comments

You're a pro wrestler (seen here in action figure form) who was just elected to the parliment of Finland with one of the highest vote totals in the country. Although calling your President a lesbian isn't really the first thing you want to do after your election.
posted by RobbieFal at 3:11 PM PST - 11 comments

GI Easter Bunny Baskets "The biggest oxymoron going on now is war toys," folksinger Utah Philipps said. "What is war? War is sticking a bayonet into people, we've been through all of this. It's the most awful thing that can happen. And what is a toy? A toy is to have fun with, to amuse yourself. Why are we telling our children that you can have fun with war?. . ."
posted by jeremias at 2:47 PM PST - 9 comments

What *is* Victoria's Secret? How does she stay so thing? [props to a fellow tiger]
posted by hobbes at 2:25 PM PST - 48 comments

He's no Stormin' Norman, but his Battalion of Greeters will takedown Saddam and Rollback Prices! Check out the extensive G.I. Joe filecard gallery at Yo Joe.com to harken back when times were a little bit more simple, and our guns fired Laser Beams. Also if you have a chance see the commercial archive for the comic books (with songs for each one!). I hope you'll learn something from all of this, and knowing is half the battle.
posted by Stan Chin at 1:58 PM PST - 15 comments

A history of Malian pop music. Confused by the interlocking names and associations of the stars of West African music? This lively account by Lisa Denenmark should help (and a follow-up is promised). Via the indispensible Afropop Worldwide.
posted by languagehat at 12:44 PM PST - 20 comments

Wild West Yorkshire Nature Diary. 'My diary describes a year in the life of woodland, field, marsh, river, canal . . . and a fairly wild back garden . . . in the Calder valley in coal measures country near Wakefield.'
Richard Bell's nature diary has been online since 1998.
The site's links page leads to more nature diaries and related resources :
Ackworth School's natural history diary, Roseberry Topping, an environmentally friendly slug trap, Yorkshire dialect verse, wildscapes from Texas, Notes from Pure Land Mountain (a journal from countryside Japan), and more.
Although it's not linked, An English Country Garden, chronicling a garden in a small village in Dorset, would not be out of place here; neither would Blackberry Creek Journal, 'a country newsletter about the seasons, animals, gardens and people of a small Michigan farm'. There is a huge collection of gardening journals and homepages here. [more inside]
posted by plep at 11:03 AM PST - 8 comments

Hey! This Is Where They Filmed That Scene Where... It's childish, I know, but I always get a buzz when I come across a place I've seen in a movie. Just as it never feels right when the city I live in turns up in one. Famous Locations is an unpretentious, modestly designed little website which is full of such thrills. For example, I've often stayed at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan - who would have thought it was where Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger hammed it up shamelessly in 9 1/2 Weeks? [More inside.Via LinkFilter.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:49 AM PST - 35 comments

The idea of weblogs has defenitely inspired BBC Online news for making the following pages:

• BBC reporters' collective weblog on Iraq
• Iraq at a glace

posted by hoder at 10:44 AM PST - 4 comments

Bush and Chirac debate Iraq
"I will bomb him in his car; I will bomb him from afar.
I will bomb him in his house; I do not like him, he’s a louse.
I’m going to bomb him here and there.
I’m going to bomb him everywhere."
posted by Perigee at 10:03 AM PST - 14 comments

A New Friend in the Neighborhood: In these day of high blood pressure and massive alcohol consumption, perhaps what we all need is to sit down and read a good book, instead of endless op-eds and political commentary. And then maybe we could sit down and talk about it afterwards. Yes, friends, the rumors are true: BookFilter is open for business.
posted by kaibutsu at 8:45 AM PST - 41 comments

The Agonist If you are caught up in minute by minute reports on what is taking place in the Iraq war, this is the site to visit.
posted by Postroad at 8:02 AM PST - 10 comments

A Summary of Pythagorean Theology
posted by oissubke at 7:53 AM PST - 6 comments

The Call to Peace. An astrological analysis of the September 11th attacks and their aftermath. Saddam Hussein, a Muslim despot who 51% of Americans think was personally involved in the September 11th terrorist attacks, is charted.
posted by johnnydark at 7:40 AM PST - 28 comments

Massive explosion rocks NASA And Pasadena, and a few other places, too. It's not every day you get to watch a black hole form. Includes cool animation (.mov file). Seems the gamma ray burst detector picks up two or three significant events every month or so.
posted by kewms at 6:55 AM PST - 13 comments

"Welcome to Old Stones, a website about selected topics in ancient art and archaeology."
posted by hama7 at 6:05 AM PST - 4 comments

We will not fly our flags in their country The finest speech so far in the whole war thing. Good luck boys!
posted by terrymiles at 5:44 AM PST - 54 comments

The Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of...the Iraqis. There's not a lot of meat to the link, but I thought it might bring a smile to somebody's face.
posted by hughbot at 4:52 AM PST - 15 comments

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

Words are to be likely casualties of the next few hours/days/weeks/months - time to double-check George Orwell's informative field medicine manual for the English Language...
posted by klaatu at 4:38 AM PST - 6 comments

White supremacists reach out to other assholes: Simon Doonan, in this week's New York Observer, reports on the soft underside of Manhattan.
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 3:35 AM PST - 7 comments