Obama campaigners encounter racism.  Surprise!

Old white people know the truth about Obama.  Old people know everything – and don’t you try to tell them differently!

A fascinating look at the way two sets of parents (and two schools of psychological thought) deal with their young sons’ gender preferences.

Dang, one of my links and one of my vids are dead now. No memory at all what they were about.

A look at the similarities & differences in the development of Botswana & Zimbabwe. Why is this relevant…well Zimbabwe has been in the news a good deal recently (at least the news I read) in light of their scandalous president elections and crazy dictator type president.

Ants invade Texas, devour electronics.

A truly awesome animated graffit/wall-painting thing. Very cool and worth watching, especially for the bits where the painting interacts with the environment.

An interesting article at the Atlantic from the perspective of a teacher teaching the “rest” – people who mostly just do not have the capabilities for college.

Unwise Canadian novelist goes on steroids as “research” for a novel. Good times follow.

Are you fucking kidding me? We (allegedly) tortured and/or allowed torture for the CHINESE, of all people? How the mighty have fallen.

Another bit of amusement, possibly a hoax – the worlds biggest self portrait, drawn via gps.  Updated: YES, it is a hoax (I started typing this entry before the reveal, and am still working on it after).

A whole mess o bearding.  And people say I change my facial hair a lot…I think I only go through 4 styles at most (goatee, full beard, sideburns, goatee + stache & connectors, soul patch. Ok, 5!)

Should there be limits to freedom of speech? People like this make you wonder. Here in the US, we restrict hate speech (or at least I think we do…do we??) – I’d like to believe this would fall under that umbrella if she tried that bullshit over here.

A nice bit on a wacky preacher courted by McCain, who is not garnering near the attention of a certain other preacher.  It does require a NYTimes login (free registration), but you should probably have one of those already anyway if you do much reading online.

Here’s a nice, long read on what sounds like the worst mmo in existence. It’s worth reading all the way through if you’re into gaming, gaming culture, or the weird ass shit people in China do.

Here’s a entertaining read – a West Wing writer puts his spin (it’s a story, not an article) on the DNC.

“Does science make belief in God obsolete?” is the question put to a bunch of “leading scientists and scholars” (and clergy). Some good reads in there.

Is it Clinton or Nixon? You decide – a brief examination of some shady politicking (most likely) committed by Hillary’s crew.

The story about John McCain telling people he didn’t vote for Bush in ’00 has been making the rounds, so you might as well check it out in case it comes up in the actual presidential competition.

In a story I find highly amusing, because I actually remember these guys – the head of the San Diego GOP was one of the founding members of Fairlight! Now, I wasn’t into the C64 so I don’t remember their early stuff, but I remember seeing the Fairlight USA stuff floating around the underwebs. This cracks me up that he’s been so cavalier about the situation – people could seriously sue his ass.

Surprise! If you torture someone they may want to kill you. This seems like a nice example of exactly what people have said (and incited much anger by doing so) about American foreign policy inciting terrorist aggression instead of stymieing it.

For fun:
Nothing like a photobomber for a cheap laugh.

An online friend of mine in City of Heroes found this and sent it to me. Wow. That is one crazy motherfucker with some serious time on his hands. It looks like he stopped documenting in 2003 or 2004 though…hopefully that’s not because he killed/molested/kidnapped someone and is now in hiding/prison.

And, just for kicks:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPxPciXcJvc

Clinton or Obama: decision tree – a pretty neat graphic

CNN has a story up on how genetic information from Africa tells us that the human race nearly died out at one point. Details in the article are really scant though, I’m surprised they let this go to press with so little.

Ars has a good article up on the state of malware & grayware. If you use a computer (which you do), it wouldn’t be a bad idea to read this.

An article at New York Magazine on how we’re wrecking our feet. Or somesuch. Quite worth reading, even if just to skim.

Wired has an article and some very cool pictures on colliding galaxies.

Here’s another very cool Wired article about the origins of the TEMPEST program.  Turns out the government has known about the vulnerability of electronic input since the 40s!

Finding life on Mars could be a very bad thing – and not in the way you think!

That DC Madam lady just turned up dead.  Suspicious?  Maayyyyyybe.  I wish I could remember that politician who died under REALLY suspicious circumstances inside the last few years.  Something to do with missing then being found drowned but he was an all-pro swimmer/rower/whatever…is this ringing any bells?  Interesting, this is the AP story that came up today, now they are saying she told someone she would kill herself before going to prison…with no documentation of said comment of course, but what they do have documented:

“I’m sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone four to eight years, because I’m shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever,” Palfrey told ABC last year when she released phone records that revealed some of her clients. “Not for a second. I’ll bring every last one of them in if necessary.”

Huh, sounds like she was willing to name all the names of her clients, maybe try and drag the whole house down with her.  And now she’s dead.  Gee, that’s just too bad.

Here’s Orson Scott Card ripping J.K. Rowling a new one.  Good times.

This guy may just be the worst office worker ever to not lose his job.  Wow, I wonder if they ran the semen-detector-lamp thing from CSI over his workspace.  If not, they really should.

That guy who was a whistleblower on the whole Abu Ghraib torture scandal thing is saying the movie/documentary of it is bullshit.  Surprise!

Some 20/20 show recorded people’s reactions to gay PDA - one of which included a 911 call (I didn’t watch any of the video clips, so no commentary on whatever they contain)!

The first superheavy element found in nature.

Slate had a cute article about modern poetry.

There have been a number of comments floating around lately about the pro-Clinton bias at ABC (especially with effing Stephanopoulos moderating the debate!?), here’s a brief tally & analysis/comparison of some of the recent debates which seems to support that idea.

Jack Bauer, 24 and torture.  OK, whatever I don’t watch the show so I have no idea.

And to close it off, here’s a crazy flash exploit.  Note that this is worth checking out just for the link to the vid of the super difficult Japanese Super Mario Brothers.  Oh hell, I’ll just link it myself.  The audio track is INCREDIBLY ANNOYING; I just watched it for a bit with audio off.  Yes, this was a real game.  Wow, I think if I had gotten that for my Nintendo it may have driven me away from consoles forever.  Or at least made me smash it.

In other news in creepy crimes: go here.  Note that this is the perfect media story – you can hype up the fear and there is NO way of knowing if you are at risk.  Basically it’s a total boogeyman.  Still, those scars look pretty real, so it may be the truly perfect story in that it is also true, and not just two random freak occurrences.

CBR has a nice interview up with Terrance Howard about Iron Man.

The mind-reading machine article you’d have to be hiding under a rock to have missed.

Two funny best-of-Craigslist posts.

Some interesting political/commentary graffiti from the UK.

Another incident to file in the “crazy fundamentalist Muslim” box. This is one of the rare situations where the man in question would have been killed here instead of there. Fucking foul.

Very cool National Geographic mini-site with pictures from all around China.

An amusing web quiz who made these pictures, an artist or an ape? I think I actually got 100% on this one.

Wired’s Top 10 Amazing Chemistry Videos. Some of them are pretty cool indeed.

Just when you thought the cannibals were keeping their shit on the dl, something like this happens.

Here’s a youtube clip of Obama talking about 04/16s debates. Grace under fire, I like that.

A very entertaining flickr set about one man’s dream of getting his letter to the undeliverable mail office.

More weird Catholic rituals. I don’t think these are sanctioned by the pope though… (Yes, they drive the nails through the flesh, it’s not fake).

Suicides get more and more creative (or cops get dumber and dumber?).

An entertaining blog from a taxi dispatcher.