The German counterpart to the CIA is marketing their own branded merchandise. Items for sale include t-shirts, calendars, pens, jackets, and more. Gifts for him include underwear labelled "Verschlusssache" (Classified,) "Streng Geheim" (Top Secret), or "Amtlich Geheim Gehalten" (Confidential). Unfortunately, it looks like Mrs. Santa Claus will have to travel to Berlin for this shopping spree, and the store won't be open until next year.

The World Currency Gallery offers a comprehensive collection of banknote images.

Is W a moron or an idiot? The answer is: yes.

ESPN has a great cartoon of turkeys that "can't help but imitate the sports heroes they've see on TV."

Take a look at these two hilarious parodies of Apple "Switch" ads starring Will Ferrell as Santa. The best part is that Apple made these ads; I don't particularly like Macs, but you have to admire Apple's sense of humor.

In its story "Iraq: Truth and Lies in Baghdad", PBS presents a series of videos in which their reporter Sam Kiley struggles to uncover information about Saddam Hussein's campaign of civilian repression and Iraq's weapons programs. I'm surprised that some of the video wasn't confiscated, although in most cases the reporter's efforts to find out information were thwarted by Iraqi officials. Anybody with any lingering doubts about Saddam Hussein's blatant duplicity should watch these videos, although I find it hard to believe that anyone could be so naïve. (Links directly to RealVideo part 2 of 4)

Yes, you read correctly: Barbie is being banned in Russia, along with a list of other toys and games. The article in The Guardian says that "Barbie, in particular, is under fire because the doll is thought to awaken sexual impulses in the minds of the very young, and encourage consumerism among Russian infants." Because there's nothing worse than Capitalist infant swines.

Once again, W plays hide and seek by himself, not realizing VP Cheney just wanted to get some work done and is not in fact "seeking" him. Visit Madville to see some more funny captions or add your own...

retroCRUSH once again makes my day with its feature on Great Robots From Film and TV. From Metropolis to A.I., they covered a lot of ground. I still have a soft spot for Battlestar Galactica, obviously.

Great news! It appears that Andy Richter Controls The Universe is returning this season starting December 1st. I'm really glad Fox picked the show up; if only they hadn't passed on The Family Guy, the most hilarious show since The Simpsons...

The movie Searching For Bobby Fischer is not about the reclusive genius himself, but I still rank it as one of my favorites. The story of Bobby Fischer is far more tortuous, as this informative article in The Atlantic reveals. Although regarded as one of the best chess masters ever, Bobby Fischer's reclusiveness and paranoia have risen to new levels. His recent anti-American screeds in radio broadcasts from The Phillippines caused even the fawning U.S. Chess Federation to denounce his actions. The article compares his tortured intellect to that of mathematician John Nash, upon whom the movie A Beautiful Mind was based, although "without the happy ending." Despite all of Bobby Fischer's achievements, that statement may ultimately sum up the life of this deranged genius.

I can't believe people are still talking about this. Does anybody care? Did anybody care last year? How about the year before? There's one. Yes, you in the fifth row: Can you tell us what year she died, because I can't remember back that far. It was 1996? Great, thanks.

Honestly, can't Larry King find some real news to report? He should get an interview with this guy. And huzzah to Reuters for updating their web site to look like part of the 21st century.

I'm not really a fan of professional basketball, but I thought that this story of triumph over adversity would have universal appeal. Now that Shaquille O'Neal's big toe is all better, he is expected to return to play on Friday. No doubt the struggling Lakers are glad that he has overcome his critical injury and is now able to return to his duties of taking up the entire court with his massive girth, occasionally dunking, and missing all of his bricks free throws. Hey, maybe this will mean no more stupid Burger King commercials! Alas, that would be too perfect...

In a case that should be a new benchmark for frivolous lawsuits, "lawyers have filed a class-action lawsuit against McDonald's on behalf of New York children who have suffered health problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity." Pretty damn stupid, right? Wait until you hear about some of the plaintiffs: "a Bronx teen who ate every meal at McDonald's for three years while living in a homeless shelter" and "a 13-year-old boy from Staten Island who says he ate at McDonald's food three to four times a week and is now 5-foot-4 and 278 pounds." Why the judge didn't laugh in those lawyers' faces, explain to them what the term "parental supervision" means, and throw some French Fries at them I just don't understand...

Read this review of Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets, not to hear how great the film is, but for this summary quote: "We've accidentally allowed a retarded monkey to rule America, but otherwise it's not such a whimsical place. Perhaps works like this can help set that to rights." Word. Although retarded monkeys everywhere are offended...

Blogger is not playing nicely with my template. This page will look pretty shitty until they fix it.
Update: The page finally looks right, but the problem with templates is still there. Maybe the folks at Blogger will look at my reported issues and find a fix that doesn't require the screwy workaround I had to kluge to make everything look right.

Dr. Earl Warrick, a Dow Corning inventor that is perhaps best known for his invention of Silly Putty, died last Friday at the age of 91. :-(

These sculptures of aquatic creatures made from hubcaps are amazingly detailed and intricate.

I've been lauding Mozilla's ability to block pop-up and graphical banner ads for some time now. However, many companies are switching to far more annoying animated Flash ads that can't be disable conventionally. Have I got an application for you! jTFlashManager allows you to disable and enable Flash on the fly, at least if you use Mozilla or Netscape. IE users will have a slightly harder time, but there is a work-around. I refuse to use IE unless absolutely necessary, though, so I hope that features like these will start to convert the people who haven't seen the light. ;-)

Yup. God Bless America. :-)

We knew our geography, dammit! I find results from a recent National Geographic survey very disturbing:

The society survey found that only about one in seven -- 13 percent -- of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military warriors, could find Iraq. The score was the same for Iran, an Iraqi neighbor.

Although the majority, 58 percent, of the young Americans surveyed knew that the Taliban and al Qaeda were based in Afghanistan, only 17 percent could find that country on a world map...

The survey asked 56 geographic and current events questions of young people in nine countries and scored the results with traditional grades. The surveyed Americans got a "D," with an average of 23 correct answers...

Thirty-four percent of the young Americans knew that the island used on last season's "Survivor" show was located in the South Pacific, but only 30 percent could locate the state of New Jersey on a map.

Something has to change, because as John Fahey, president of the National Geographic Society points out, "If our young people can't find places on a map and lack awareness of current events, how can they understand the world's cultural, economic and natural resource issues that confront us?" That and we're just looking pretty stupid here...

The National Council of Churches and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life are teaming up to convince us that Jesus would certainly not drive an SUV, so neither should you. Well, it turns out they are right. Jesus, in fact, drives a Buick LeSabre. I know this because I stayed at the same Holiday Inn Express as Him once in Virginia, where I took a picture of His car. You might think it would be pretty cool to share a hotel with Jesus. Honestly though, the steady stream of monks singing Gregorian Chant in the hallways at all hours got to be pretty tiresome.

retroCRUSH presents the Arcade Game Challenge, in which you need to identify the 27 screenshots of classic arcade games. I'm confident that I know all but one (#2); how about you?

This page compares panoramic images of Seattle's waterfront taken in 2002 and 1907 from the same vantage point. Some cool transitioning effects are used (only if you're using IE, though) to highlight the differences between past and present.

Why nobody bid on this rare, exciting item offered on ebay I just don't know. Maybe it reminds people of Butch's watch in Pulp Fiction or something...

Actor James Coburn has died of a massive heart attack at the age of 74. :-(

I've made several posts about how great MAME is. For those of you not in the know, it's a program that emulates over 3,000 arcade games, allowing you to play them on your PC. I just found out that in the latest version (.62), there is support for the Bradley Trainer that was made for the U.S. Army from the game Battlezone. The page has a bunch of screenshots, as well as the ROM binaries that are required for MAME to run the game.

As this article at retroCRUSH points out, the arcade game is much better than the movie, although I happen to like the movie. There was so much to like about the arcade game, and as much as I miss it even my MAME emulator and X-Arcade Controller can't do the real arcade controls justice, unfortunately.

The EP-3 surveillance aircraft that a Chinese fighter jet collided with 16 months ago made its first test flight since the incident. It will eventually return to duty, and I *so* hope it resumes flights off the coast of China.

Dalton Ghetti's sculptures are unique, mostly because of the medium he uses. Ghetti sculpts out of the lead at the end of pencils, producing surprisingly intricate, delicate miniature works. I can't imagine the patience (and broken lead) that it must take to do this...

Most of you have probably played the game of making porn film names from real movies. Well, this page seems to have a definitive list, if that's possible. Oh, and I'll go out on a limb and will classify this as NSFW.

Slashdot is reporting that an animated Star Wars series will debut on the Cartoon Network in the near future. Apparently, it is set in between Episodes II and III and is being produced by Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack), so maybe it won't suck too badly.

If you are an astronomy fan, tonight is the night for you. The Leonid Meteor Shower will appear with an intensity not to be seen for another century. Rarely do these meteorites strike the earth, but NASA has provided us with a glimpse of what a 12+Kg rock can do to a late model American car when they do. Please make sure that you check out the hyperlink for the word "lucky" in the story. Those NASA guys do have a sense of humor.
Here's a good link for spotting information and peak viewing times.

Jeffrey Jones was arrested on child sex charges. Character actor Jones was perhaps best known for his role as Ed Rooney, Dean of Students in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Pretty sad if it's true...

Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman is suing Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist Bill Wyman for using his real name. Apart from the obvious stupidity of this claim, the bassist was not even born Bill Wyman, changing his name from William George Perks in 1964.

ESPN presents its list of the 10 most controversial plays in sports history. Although I totally agree with their number one choice, when three seconds were put back on the clock during the 1972 U.S. vs. U.S.S.R. Olympic basketball game, I still have a personal grudge against that little kid that interfered with Orioles' outfielder Tony Tarasco in the 1996 ALCS, depriving the Orioles of their chance to knock out the Yankees.

In yet another blatantly asinine attempt at "copy protection," record labels are test-releasing DVDs that become unreadable a limited time after being exposed to air. The New York Times (free registration required to view the link; sorry) writes:

In the promotion by Atlantic Records, retailers in the southern United States will offer a free sample DVD to buyers of a CD by Nappy Roots, a hip-hop group. Once the packaging is opened, the disc will work for only eight hours before being made unreadable by a dye sandwiched between the DVD's layers that interacts with air, leaving it opaque.

I hope consumers will denounce this for the farce that it is. Not only is the technology ripe for misuse and confusion, but think of the waste generated by all of the DVDs rendered useless; AOL freebies are bad enough! The discussion at Slashdot is worth reading if you feel like venting...

For some Friday Fun, try Radial Pong.

Michael Jackson looks really weird. Just thought you'd want to know.

In case my previous post wasn't enough to convince you, Mozilla is set to add another feature to make it that much more attractive: spam filtering. I use Eudora as my e-mail client right now, andcontinually update my own manual filters, but they only do so much. If this new predictive filtering works right, it would make things a lot easier. The feature is still in version 1.3 Alpha, so keep an eye out for it in future versions while the bugs are ironed out.

Did you know that in 2000 a fifth ocean was established (in addition to the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic)? The Southern Ocean was officially established by the International Hydrographic Organization as "surrounding Antarctica across all degrees of longitude and up to a northern boundary at 60° South latitude." The CIA has a Factbook entry, and this about.com article also has some information. I feel so uninformed...

Check out this hilarious list at Davezilla.

I had never heard of Kite Aerial Photography, but I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised. What really got me is the quality of some of the photographs people have taken from a kite platform. The added height obviously gives a unique perspective, with the added benefit of introducing some interesting lighting conditions. NASA even has a page that includes "how-to" instructions.

The Onion, as always, has some insightful comments on the recent mid-term election turnaround.

According to ESPN, "Manute Bol has traded in his basketball sneakers and boxing trunks and now is in a shocking search for a pair of ice skates." That's right, the 7-foot-7 former NBA player is set to suit up for the Indianapolis Ice of the Central Hockey League. But don't worry, Ice general manager Larry Linde says, "We're not going to throw him out there if he's going to kill himself or someone else.'' Good to know.

"An eccentric Frenchman who goes by the name of Crazy Eric has entered the record books for the unusual feat of carrying permanently about his body more than 1,000 useful objects. Dubbed the human Swiss Army Knife, Eric is a 30-year-old electrician from the central-eastern city of Lyon who has a psychological obsession with neatness and an ingenious line in clothes design." Go Go Gadget Soldering Iron...

Steve Martin's production company is developing Mr. and Mr. Nash, a "gay version of Hart To Hart," with Alan Cummings starring as one of two interior decorators who "stumble upon a murder each week." I'm most curious about who will play the analogous role of Max the bodyguard, some large, stern woman in comfortable shoes?

I know this is old news, but this picture just captures the moment so well. In case you didn't hear the story, Kentucky was seconds from upsetting LSU in Saturday's football matchup, inspiring fans to rush the field and start tearing down the goalpost. Meanwhile, on the other end of the field, with three seconds left a Hail Mary pass by LSU connected for a touchdown to win the game. Talk about jinxing your team...

This hilarious 17-minute (49MB!) short film illustrates why it is so important to properly label things NSFW. The film itself is SFW but is so damn funny that maybe you should wait until you're home to avoid disturbing others. :-)

Take the Rolling Stones Simpsons Quiz and see whether you remember the rock icons that have been on the show. I only got two wrong, but that's because I haven't had my caffeine yet. Really!

Archaeological Collage presents several architectural scenes and "morphs" the past scene into the present, depicting how things changed, and in some cases, remained the same.

ESPN.com Page 2's Bill Simmons presents the Unintentional Comedy Rating scale, "those moments when something or someone cracks you up ... even though that wasn't necessarily the original intention." This is so much funnier than I can describe; take a look at the page for a comprehensive rated list of comic moments that weren't supposed to be funny but are!

To celebrate the 10 year aniversary of the Guns and Roses Riot in Vancouver, Axl Rose failed to show for the tour opener and sparked another Canadian brouhaha!

Akiyoshi's illusion pages are chock full of optical illusions, anomalous motion illusions, and more. In case you're wondering, that's not actually a spiral to the right, but a series of concentric circles. Check out the site to see a larger version of that and other illusions.

As usual, Absolut Vodka's latest marketing campaign is pretty cool. This time, they are presenting a virtual "hotel" along with fashions by Stella McCartney, including "room service" with vodka drink recipes, among other things. There's a lot to explore, and their main site is chock full of even more neat stuff. Of course, I'm a little biased, as I've been collecting their ads for over 10 years now, amassing over 600. Yeah, I get a little obsessive about some things [*cough* '80s music *cough*], but I think it's fun, so that's all that matters. But I'm not rationalizing, really. ;-)

Townshend reviews Kurt Cobain's Journals in The Guardian. He has a unique perspective from which to comment on these journals, and not only because "in the middle of one of his rants against the rock press establishment," Kurt Cobain writes, "I hope I die before I become Pete Townshend." From what I've read and heard, it sounds as if Cobain's entries reveal much about his tortured psyche, one that perhaps contributed to his talents but which ultimately doomed him to his sad fate. Townshend writes: We find it so hard to save our own, but must take responsibility for the fact that the message such deaths as Cobain's sends to his fans is that it is in some way heroic to scream at the world, thrash a guitar, smash it up and then overdose. Read this book to see that the human spirit, even at its most sublime, can effect monumental damage on itself and its fellow souls if addiction enters the story. I mourn for Kurt. A once beautiful, then pathetic, lost and heroically stupid boy. Hard rock indeed.

I never thought I would say something like this, but the new Kylie Minogue video is pretty damn cool. (Links directly to streaming video).

"Christopher Todd Brown will try to get the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari in an effort to establish what he considers a basic constitutional right -- the right to write "Fuck You" to university administrators in his master's thesis in a "Disacknowledgements" section in place of the traditional "Acknowledgements." Wow, I wish I had thought of that. Oh wait, I guess I need to have written a master's thesis to have thought of that. Oh well, I say stick it to The Man!

If Anakin Skywalker has switched, maybe you should too.

And guess what, Troy Aikman is available! What a coinkydink...

Because he wasn't humiliated enough in his 1984 bid for the Democratic presidential candidacy, Gary Hart is reportedly considering another run at the presidency. Something tells me that he is a little deluded...

The implications of yesterday's elections haven't fully been realized yet. I do know that Ben "Cooter" Jones' defeat in his bid for Virginia congressman is a shame. OK, maybe not, but I just thought it would be cool to say that Cooter from "The Dukes Of Hazzard" made it to Congress. I guess that shows where I stand on the voter apathy scale these days, although I did vote (eventually). Maybe he should have rethought his platform in portraying himself as a "`NASCAR Democrat' who sought to 'take care of mama 'n them and make sure the kids get a good education.'"

The Big Cartoon Database is to cartoons what the Internet Movie Database is to movies. OK, it's not as comprehensive as IMDB yet, but it's still a great source of information and nostalgia.

I'm really enjoying the recent, long overdue trend of artists willing to speak their mind against the practices of the record industry, like the mention I made of Don Henley last week. In the wake of Tom Petty's latest album, The Last DJ, Rolling Stone's interview with Tom Petty shows that he is not afraid to speak his mind. The title track of the song has apparently been banned from some radio stations because it is seen as a slap in the face; the track laments the fact that DJs no longer have any freedom and are forced by corporations to play canned playlists. I highly recommend the album, and after reading this article I am that much more glad that I am supporting artists like him.

Choose from hundreds of works from different artists and recreate them in this paint by numbers site.

What do you get when you have a helicopter, a digital camera, and some time on your hands? Well, I can't think of a good punchline, but one answer is California Coastal Records Project, an "aerial photographic survey of the California coast." Currently, "6900 photographs (totaling over 44GB) of the California Coast [are] on file, from approximately Bodega Bay...to San Onofre...and the Oregon Border...to Eureka." This is way cool...

Just in case you still haven't come to your senses and downloaded Mozilla yet, here are 101 things you can do in Mozilla that you can't do in M$ Internet Explorer. My favorites are tabbed browsing and the ability to easily turn off not only pop-up ads but also annoying ads within pages. The fact that Mozilla is being developed as open source software means independent developers are able to contribute their talents in creating new add-ons and projects, including custom sidebars and toolbars, among many other things. C'mon, what are you waiting for?!

Don't you just love election years? Even the judges here in Montgomery County, Maryland have resorted to mudslinging and distorting the other guy's record. What blows my mind is the amount of money spent on these elections. Gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend produced a video tape specifically for Montgomery County voters. As far as I know, all households with registered Dems received a copy of this tape. That's a lot of tapes and a lot of $$$. I wonder how many people will even watch it? Or how many of those will be prompted to vote for Townsend because of it? Or how many of those will change their mind on the way to the polls because somebody handed them a glossy brochure with another candidate's name on it?

What we need is a forum where all prospective voters can find factual information about any candidate, presented in an objective and fair manner. Then we need people to learn to use this forum, and not rely so much on the glossy literature that has little to say, costs lots of money, and mostly just goes into the landfill (or recycle bin). The best example of this forum I have found is run by the League of Women Voters. You can put in your ZIP+4 and have a list of all the candidates, ballot issues, etc. with information about all of them. Imagine an election where campaign contributions are not a factor, and the piles of propaganda are considered unnecessary. Hey, it could happen. In the meantime, get out and vote! It gives you the right to demand more from your politicians.

Got $55,000 some spare change lying around? Then put in a bid on ebay for a MiG-21. Just be aware that "supersonic flights in any aircraft over the US are limited to certain military test areas. We can get permission for buyer at China Lake and Edwards AFB." Wow.

CottAGE has a whole bunch of classic arcade games available to play in your web browser. What fun!

The latest innovation from Google is a service that answers your questions. You can ask any question you like (although Google reserves the right to remove it from consideration). Actual human researchers find you an answer and post it in a public forum. As you can imagine, this is not a free service, but you get to set your own price. Minimum is $2.50. The more you are willing to pay, the more likely you are to receive an answer in a timely manner. Regular users can also post comments to your question. My favorite question so far: What should I do with my time?

The NCAA has approved a new set of standards for recruiting. "College coaches in every sport [will now be allowed] to recruit high school athletes who achieved no better than a 400 on their SAT." In case you're wondering, a 400 means you didn't get one question right. It's bad enough that W celebrates mediocrity when he claims that even a "C" student can become president (although somehow I think he was exaggerating a little), but this is just way beyond the pale. I'll continue my rant later, as I don't think I've vented quite enough on this subject yet...

W shows off his scintillating intellect.