One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.

Baby born with tail.

This is about the most strange video clip I've ever seen. Please tell me this is real. Loads of other good clips here as well.

OnionAVCLub interview with Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane
Yeah. There are people on staff who have made that point, that the upside to a second Bush term is that it makes American Dad work better. To me, the price is too high. I would gladly give up the comedy to have a President Kerry. But you work with what you have.

Frank Rich has a fantastic piece in today's NYTimes about the state of the war and the difference between those who wanted it and those who fight it.

... and 85 ways to tie a necktie (mathematically proven if you follow the links)

22 Ways to lace your shoes Because you like checkerboard patterns on your feet.

The Republican regime will be fighting a John Kerry sponsored bill designed to provide healthcare coverage to the 11 Million children in the U.S. who have none. They're putting our country's children dead last while feeding their cronies in the defense industry more money for their war. Add your name to Senator Kerry's list of supporters to let Congress know that this is an important piece of legislation and a wise use of taxpayer funds in a political climate where wisdom is all too uncommon.

http://www.johnkerry.com/KidsFirst

Proving once again that a) audiophiles will buy anything and b) we're all in the wrong business, referenceaudio is selling a (one) stereo knob for $500. Made out of wood. You know, that stuff that all those trees are made of. Because wood vibrates better. Or less, or something. And all of that sound that your non-wooden knobs are generating is probably somehow inferior. Damn.

The US is now less environmentally sustainable than Botswana (very short, Mother Jones, references this NYTimes article ranking nations on environmental policy)

Thank you, W.

Johnny Carson on Democracy (from Bifurcated Rivets)

Is it just me or is blogger getting slow to the point of uselessness lately? Hey google, change the hamsters in those servers, will you?

Those whizzing bullets are the sound of freedom on the march.
The US Military is adopting a strategy of (literally) inhuman killing in Iraq this spring with the rollout of robotic assault weapons.
Mr Quinn says there are plans to replace the computer screen, joysticks and keypad in the remote-control unit with a Gameboy-style controller and virtual-reality goggles.

Sex Pistol Steve Jones interviews Brian Wilson about the 38 years later resurrection of the Beach Boy's "Smile" album. (Audio, Second link down)

The Encyclopedia Mythica at pantheon.org

Fawning Fox News puppethead stupified by objections to Bush's lavish innauguration during his failed far.

[Soak no evil] Vile fundamentalists, who have somehow have latched on to the 'Christian' moniker while consistently mocking everything Christ-like, have turned their paranoid rants toward Spongebob. Aren't these disgusting subhumans already busy enough celebrating a murderous, illegal war, defending guns, and denying proven science without attacking fictional yellow singing sponges? These people are getting less entertaining every day.

Study the lost art of the swizzle stick.

Homemade Alaskan Mech-Assault Flame-throwing humanoid
Study its build-progress at neogentronyx

Hell hath no fury like an online gamer scorned

Want an original Picasso? Shop CostCo

Drink up, ladies. A drink a day boosts cognitive power in older women.

The Interactive Inagural Map of DC - Your roadmap to fun!

Matt Blaze's Safecracking for the Computer Scientist (pdf) looks at the similarities and differences between physical security in safes and locks and system security.

Replace Rumsfeld. over 700,000 have signed. Let's get it over a million.

Office Assault Weapons. Prison shankcraft meets Staples

Ho Hum, More War And Death (sfgate)
What happens when habitual warmongering and BushCo lies become part of our daily diet?
A similar apathy allowed Germans to stand by as their leader went on to infamy.

Let's spell it out again, one more time, just for old time's sake. There was no "bad" intelligence. There was no evil Saddam plotting an overthrow of the world. There was only BushCo-branded coercion and misprision and traitorous presidential lies the scale of which make Nixon look like a pickpocket. The CIA and the FBI and the Pentagon said it outright: Saddam was harmless. No threat. No WMD. No reason to go to war. Period. Didn't matter.

The good news: The government is abandoning the Carnivore project to monitor your internet usage and email content.
The bad news: They're doing so because it can't compete with better, commercially available surveillance systems designed by companies who are under no obligation to uphold the government's standards of privacy.

wabi sabi

SOS: Students for an Orwellian Society

Washboards International: Dedicated to the musical washboard and its players.
Found on (where else) jugband.org, where you can dig this honkin jug virtuoso, or even build a washtub bass.

Though not strictly necessary, a tub-lifter can improve the resonance and increase the volume of a washtub bass. All that's needed is something to set the rim of the tub on to hold it a bit away from the floor. Most players use a small block of wood. Some cut a notch in the block to keep it from slipping. "Washtub Basso Rick" prefers to use the rubber head of a plunger, which yields the best results of all lifters I've tried.

Nice site on touch guitars, torn from bifurcated rivets

An oldie but a goodie: For Sale by Mental Patient

Hey, It's "I ain't makin' this shit up, Friday!": Finding a good guidance counselor is tough these days. California middle school students were told to consider being strippers- but only if they were hot enough to make pull the big stripper cash.

He told the students, "For every two inches up there, it's another $50, 000," according to Jason Garcia, 14.

Educational video from Bush's Office of Truth Enhancement. When truth gets in the way, they get to work.

Say it with me: "We're the good guys. This is for democracy. For use against those that hate freedom." Repeat.

Feel free to submit invoices to the Pentagon for R+D expenses on a Gaydar system.

Gizmodo Bill Gates interview part 4: DRM and Communism
See also Gates's CNet interview from Jan 5.

A report revealing the nasty VCs who are funding the major spyware companies.

Saucy Senior sacked for showing snaps of sac-covering sack!. Damn, I should work for the Daily News.

Evolution textbook stickers: A victory in Georgia against the endarkened antiscience crusaders. (NYTimes)

OnionAVClub interview with producer Rick Rubin on Def Jam's history and the earliest days of rap in New York.

Howard Pyle: Father of American Illustration

Can't have a homemade war without a homemade tank.

Last night Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 won Best Movie of the Year at the People's Choice awards. Here's his acceptance speech. (.mov)

Need a new trick for next year's XGames? Hire a physicist.
Czerski, a keen sportswoman and diver herself, said: “I spent a lot of time looking at the physics behind various stunts, trying to understand the limits of what is physically possible to determine how far we could push the parameters with our new creation. I then tested our ideas using a computer simulation to plot a new stunt.”

In the bicycling world, over the past few years there's been a bit of a backlash against the fancy, complicated componentry and gadgets that hang from road bike frame. The best place to see bike minimalism is at the fixed gear gallery, which features over 1400 pics and descriptions of bikes stripped down to their bare essentials- no cyclo-computers, no freewheels (if you're moving forward, you're pedalling), no gears, and many times, no brakes.

Busting up stuff in space: Comet Smasher Nears Launch

Privacy: Cape Code DNA Round-Up

Every Zoo

Largest eruption in universe discovered (Insert Taco Bell joke here)

The Reality of Red-State Fascism from Lew Rockwell
The vigor and determination of the Bush administration has brought about a profound cultural change, so that the very people who once proclaimed hated of government now advocate its use against dissidents of all sorts, especially against those who would dare call for curbs in the totalitarian bureaucracy of the military, or suggest that Bush is something less than infallible in his foreign-policy decisions. The lesson here is that it is always a mistake to advocate government action, for there is no way you can fully anticipate how government will be used. Nor can you ever count on a slice of the population to be moral in its advocacy of the uses of the police power.

I'm just getting around to this, but it seems to me like the lamest scam ever concocted. X10 has been around for decades, and this n00b decides to fake web-controlled christmas lights with still photos. A computer specialist? I just don't get it when a scam is more labor-intensive than the actual working design. Please. How did anyone fall for this junk?

A couple of weeks late, but interesting all the same. Augie Wren's Christmas story was the story used for the "Smoke" screenplay. (via JoelonSoftware)

If hot-rodding beautiful old cars is an art form, then hot-rodding and turbocharging a 1986 Plymouth Horizon is a surrealist/dada/avant garde art form.
Yo: 227 HP and 352 lb ft of torque.

No idea too dumb: Banks recycle credit card numbers. Hilarity ensues.

Yu, 30, a Mountain View resident, found himself on the hook for nearly $700 in purchases. Those purchases, he discovered, may have been made by the person who previously held his account number.
"I had no idea this was even possible," Yu said.

This is a problem both so easy to avoid, and so stupid to actually let happen that I would have thought it was impossible. Damn.

At SnowCrystals.com, they grow designer snowflakes in their own lab.

Scientists asked, "What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?" (NYTimes)
More at the edge.org

Tivo2Go looks pretty cool.

Toreadore Squat, Wa-Ha, Trinity: Your bags have names

AMG, easily the best and largest music-review site on the web, Just released its best-of-2004 list

Nick Jr., Antebellum-style: 19th Century children and what they read

How Bush Really Won

Surviving Charles Dickens' London (odd BBC flash game)