A tank of gas; a world of trouble
A 5 part Chicago Tribune article tracing a tank of gas purchased in suburban Chicago to its origins.

Thus, $73.81 worth of unleaded pumped one Saturday afternoon by a Little League mom was traced not simply back to Africa, but to a particular set of offshore fields in Nigeria through which Ibibio villagers canoed home to children dying of curable diseases.

Gov't plans on tracking college students (courant)
Whether you call it a "national unit records database" (the first name) or a "consumer-friendly information database" (the second), it is in fact a mandatory federal registry of all American students throughout their collegiate careers - every course, every step, every misstep. Once established, it could easily be linked to existing K-12 and workforce databases to create unprecedented cradle-to-grave tracking of American citizens. All under the watchful eye of the federal government.

Dig it, Eastern Pennsylvanians! The Jive house band is gonna bust heads at a Good Old BBQ Joint near Allentown. Celebration music for the unwashed! Heartache balladry and tales of woe played on request, bitches! Life ain't fair and we play it like we know it! Get signed permission from your probation officers and come on out. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Black Panthers Coloring book
(from Sharpeworld)

In Episode 1 of InstantDef, Snickers candy bars comes out hard against gold teeth wearing hip-hop midgets. This is the dumbest shit I've seen since the last product-placement mini-movie.

Checking out the trailer (do click this) for the unbelievable 1978 action/rock film (?) Stunt Rock (found on mefi), I'm wondering where this bizarre mixup of rock'n'roll and wizards comes from. Are there people out there wishing they could cast spells in pointy hats and shred the metal riffs? It turns out that "Wizard Rock" is a genre unto itself. And it's got fans. Damn.

Sacrowedgy? Wha?

Some good graffiti on the Israel/Palestinian wall by Banksy

Another really great collection of Ex Libris scans at BibliOdyssey
(via)

Its been a while since I checked in on Shepard Fairey's ObeyGiant site, and it turns out he's got some great new posters up - many of which are really cheap.

Los Shakers... "You Listen Me: Break It All!"

If you like freshwater fishing, you know how fun an active pond is. This shit is just ridiculous. (google vid)

1500 of your favorite 80's videos.

Antique Music Machines of Yesteryear

The Fundamentalist Christian Way: Suburban American conservatives celebrating others' pain, strife, chaos. I must have missed the mass where they described the Christ-like logic that these creeps use to feed their pathology.

Actual quote: "Whoa! I can sure feel the glory bumps after reading this thread!"

Ew.

Also... might want to have a real doctor check out those 'glory bumps', mouthbreather. Until you do, stop 'feeling' them if you're going to be running around slapping backs and shaking hands with people over all of this killing, or we can add a glory-bump outbreak to the list of mankind's woes.

Where's the Church of the FSM in all of this?

'You work for me,' he'd say, 'just like you're going to the office.' You didn't get off the bus unless you had your suit and tie on. Because you were representing his organization".

Jabo's respect for James' business-like attitude was reflected in his decision to stay on when most of the band jumped ship in 1970. "I had a contract with James, and I had to honor that contract. I'm glad I stayed now, but if I had not had a contract, I would have left, too, mainly because it was getting monotonous for me. But James was doing a lot of fining when he was off stage. The littlest thing he saw you do, he'd fine you for it.

A great article on James Brown's funky drummers

Swoon's paper street art.
Nice flickr gallery of her work.

Some ultra-rare Jamaican 70's singles (MP3s courtesy of wfmu's blog)

Papercraft vintage home appliances (!) Japanese, of course. I usually can't stand when people tell me (and they do) that I've got "way too much time on my hands". It's usually a question of priority, not time. But... if you catch me making these things, you'll be dead right.

Princeton's Hand Bookbindings

A nice little gallery of Depression-era American art

Verse by Voice (coudal)
You don't see many poetry memes on the web, and you might not see one here but we'll give it a try anyhow. Who's next? Call 703 637 9276 and recite your favorite short poem and we might use it on the site and/or send you a present too.

James Earl Jones movie lines inappropriately dubbed into Star Wars. This is hilarious even if you can't stand Star Wars. (youtube)

Come say hey at Whiskey Dix in Philly tonight!
9:30 - Chris Day (formely of Tommy Conwell's Young Rumblers)
10:30 - Jet Weston and his Atomic Ranch Hands
11:30 - Tom Gillam's Tractor Pull
5 bucks = Cheap!

The Japanese Gallery of psychiatric art (via boingboing)

Surveillance Bill to sweep electronic spying under the rug.
"This so-called compromise bill is not a concession fromthe White House -- it's a rubber stamp for any futurespying program dreamed up by the executive," said EFF StaffAttorney Kevin Bankston. "In essence, this bill threatensto make court oversight of electronic surveillancevoluntary rather than mandatory."

Strong AI within 25 years (Kurzweil)

Ridiculously complicated etch-a-sketch art
(via drawn!)

Cow Power

Rock Stacking (via Rivets)

Animated map of obesity in America

Syd Barrett, RIP

Whales? Sure... but traffic cones need preservation too.

Bangkok Bob has some great Thai signs.
If these handlickers on my street don't move on soon, I'm hanging one of these up too.

"I can invent robots able to carry a sedan chair, and next I will make robots of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. "
We can only hope he uses his awesome robot powers for good. (via boingboing)

Bush implemented domestic spying program months before 9/11 (Bloomberg)

Looks like a puzzle to put together, but this beach chair's design is great

Fishposters.com
Posters. Of fish.

Spam works and its your fault
Spam messages promoting pornography are 280 times as effective in getting recipients to click on them as messages advertising pharmacy drugs, which are the next most effective type of spam.

Spin, a documentary about newsfeed outtakes that you aren't supposed to see, is featured in its entirety online. Never underestimate the entertainment value of hacks prepping bad candidates.

Optical Illusion effects last overnight
The effect typically lasts for hours, or even overnight. The duration can be changed by the consumption of coffee and other psychoactive drugs. One paper found that it is stronger in extroverts than introverts, and might be a reliable test for extroversion.

The precise cause of the effect is unknown, and currently under investigation. It is not a simple case of fatigued neurons: there are neurotransmitters involved and appear to be responsible for the long-lasting nature of the effect. It probably takes place in the V1 processing stage of visual information. This is the first image processing after the signal leaves the retina in the eye. The edge detection circuits somehow become associated with the color. At this stage the processing is monocular: the images from the two eyes have not been combined.

Prophet Yahweh brings the UFOs. (vid)