Synchronizing metronomes

Ipco Creamy Snuff Tobacco Toothpaste. Hmmm.

The World's Smallest Book goes on sale this week.

419eater: who knew Nigerian Scambaiters had their own trophy room?

The Automatic Man (from a gallery of Victorian Robots)

Steve Schofield's "Land of the Free" photograph series highlights people who like to dress up. Trek/Starwars, of course, lead the pack. Where's all the good, new SF?

Great animated video for Jakob Dylan's "Evil is Alive and Well"

Audium

I've always thought that modern athletic shoes are the ugliest things on the planet. While the functionality is clearly far ahead of what was available decades ago, these gains have been more than offset by the sheer bulk of ugly, pointless cap that is rubber molded and stitched on to these things. 37Signals takes a look at an offender

Want to make a billion dollars? Design a sneaker that looks great.

Good magazine traces the greatest journeys in history. (interactive, Good)

How RFID could be used to track unsuspecting people (Scientific American)

America's Outrageous War Economy (MarketWatch)
Yes, America's economy is a war economy. Not a "manufacturing" economy. Not an "agricultural" economy. Nor a "service" economy. Not even a "consumer" economy.

Emily is not real.
The end of actors?

Spongebob on Healthcare reform

P: “I can’t see a doctor because my job doesn’t provide me with health insurance.”

S: “What job is that?”

P: “Exactly.”

Is McCain another George W Bush (cnn)
Russia invades Georgia and President Bush goes on vacation. Our president has spent one-third of his entire two terms in office either at Camp David, Maryland, or at Crawford, Texas, on vacation.

His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.

Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California.

I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, McCain didn't bother to show up. Now I know why.

A children's book (free pdf download) based on Slint's epically dismal 1991 Spiderland song "Good Morning, Captain".

Using photographs to enhance video of a static scene.
Amazing.

Odd ebay: $300,000 Origami V-8 Engine. 5756 pieces of paper. 3.4 rpm, so no racing.

Photography as a Weapon (nytimes)
As almost everyone knows by now, various major daily newspaper published, on July 10, a photograph of four Iranian missiles streaking heavenward; then Little Green Footballs (significantly, a blog and not a daily newspaper) provided evidence that the photograph had been faked. Later, many of those same papers published a Whitman’s sampler of retractions and apologies.

Our Phony Economy (Harpers)