Some sort of dried fish for sale in Chinatown.

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Winners of the teenage furniture design competition. [via thingsmag]

The gatherings -- generally following a schedule of a 10-12 minute opening statement, followed by 20 minutes of questions and answers -- now are more often called scripted or campaign events in news stories. -On the roadshow with Governor Schwarzenegger.

Ski jumping in San Francisco's Pacific Heights?

'Inundación en Guatemala' - A painting recalling Hurricane Mitch's devastation of Central America by artist Diego Isaias Hernandez Mendez.

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"The Beast" - a camera flash system built for a stadium.

All you ever wanted to know about fire extinguishers.

Harmful algal bloom photo gallery.

Yvonne Han is one of two partners in a successful Shanghai chain of restaurants. She dresses in Prada or Gucci, drives a BMW and owns a stylish apartment in the heart of the city. She is on a salary of $4,000 a month plus a share of the business' monthly profits. And as she does not pay rent, almost all of her income is disposable, so each month she spends $5,000 on luxury labels. -The Chinese getting suckered into the game.

Classical reggae interviews.

A large collection of images of minority stereotypes from The Authentic History Center.

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Introduction to World War I poetry.

Incredibly detailed aeronautical map of the North Atlantic. Sweet.

Monsters of the deep.

Aunt Tessie's Cole Slaw. Yum.

A work safety awareness program featuring The Simpsons.

Two fans watch a cyclist blur by during the Road Cycling World Championships this past weekend in Madrid.

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Crush ice for snow-cones, use it in blender drinks, cocktails, soda’s, use it at Beach, All your parties, Chew some at work, apply to wounds and stay hydrated. Ice is good for you, but only if it crystal clear (not cloudy refrigerator ice), taste-free, quality ice with the IPIA logo on the bag. Obtainable at your local food stores. -Consumer tips from the International Packaged Ice Association.

Carlos Santana designs and sells women's shoes. I did not know that.

Time magazine interview with Neil Young.

1,000+ petanque postcards.

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How to identify a quality fresh ham. Also, how to bone a cooked ham.

How to find good local food near you.

Famous people from Birmingham, England.

More information about Archie Comics than you would have thought humanly possible.

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Favourite Stephen King Quotes.

Burke Family Grape-Nuts TV commercial, 1968-70.

Videos of the Inventus unmanned aerial vehicle.

Cape Cod, from a four page gallery of huge, beautiful satellite photographs. [via metafilter]

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Common dandelion.

A bit of the conversation between Jet Blue 292 and air traffic control / maintenance during last week's emergency landing. Very interesting.

Sleep tips for successful sleep.

Churches of Italy.

Scans of old menus from some Virginia chain restaurants.

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Previa (Toyota): Unfortunate associations with placenta (Latin="cake") for anyone who's had a baby. Praevia means "ahead on the road" - good name for a car, nasty as a cake. -Latin car names explained. Excellent.

The problem with bikes.

High resolution photo of the Jet Blue plane landing at LAX. [via metafilter]

Never one to pander to Hollywood's demands for air-brushed body perfection, his characterful Gallic features and happily ample waistline appear to have been born to drive a tractor through a field of vines. -Article on Gerard Depardieu and other celebrity wine sellers.

The retro motels of Highway 99.

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Yacht piracy.

Friction and fly balls.

The philosophical lexicon.

Operator voice: The fingers you have used to dial are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now. Homer: [screams] Aah!

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Dinosaur extinction page.

List of times when characters on the TV series Smallville have lost consciousness.

The crew of a chartered jet pretended they needed to make an emergency landing so 289 Gambian soccer fans on board could watch their team compete in a youth soccer championship. - El fútbol es muy bueno.

New baseball statistics. [via robotowisdom]

Wonderfully large collection of graphic artwork from the Canadian Pacific Railway archives.

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Norway during World War II.

Forty-one anomalies of water. [via b-rivets]

Get a free bicycle messenger movie art thing DVD.

A bibliography of mystery novels set in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Detective fiction on stamps.

A collection of antique seed packets.

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Listen to all of Neil Young's new album on NPR.

An analysis of Bob Dylan's song "Hurricane" from a site that alleges Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's guilt.

Grandparents Became More Important: As parents became busier and away from their children more, grandparents started stepping in to help out. Grandparents are one of children's fastest-growing income sources. -From a really disturbing Metafilter thread on marketing to children.

A collection of anti-smoking stamps.

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BBC: Men and women 'not so different'. Whew.

Hot dog shaped stress relievers.

Photo guide to putting together a 7-speed internally geared hub bicycle.

Tips on how to spot a flood-damaged vehicle.

The sausage finger trick.

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We give the discerning, God(s)-fearing ancient Egyptian consumer the tools and information to plan for a safe, speedy, comfortable trip to the afterlife. -Eternity Travel.com.

Sangrias for kids. Adults too.

A bong made from carrots and a melon.

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Colonel Sanders portrait. Also, a photo of him with two cheerleaders.

Glossary of domino terms.

A huge collection of beheading pictures from public executions and paintings of decapitations. [yuck]

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Authorized methods of execution by State. [sorry]

BBC: Death rate boosts funeral profits.

Cocaine smugglers using unmanned submarines.

When the president walked by King Juan Carlos of Spain after delivering a toast at the summit lunch Wednesday, he joked: "You didn't listen to me!" The king assured Bush he had listened and praised the toast. Juan Carlos also told the secretary general he gave "a very nice speech." -Behind the scenes at the UN Summit.

Miguel Caballero - High Security Fashion. [via j-walk]

Cleaning up after Burning Man.

A gold plated brass three piston valve trumpet. Part of a large auction of Dizzy Gillespie memorabilia.

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Defence contractors like to see themselves as rounded commercial organisations these days, not merely purveyors of guns, bullets and cluster-bombs in the traditional "merchants of death" mould. -A report on the Defence Systems and Equipment International exhibition in London.

On Ebay: The Ultimate Hippie Vacation.

Minor league baseball fans who are struck by foul balls while in stadium concession areas can sue the ballparks for their injuries. -Ruling made by the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Images and history of French advertising. [via neurastenia]

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Take a Lance Armstrong branding survey. Also, an interview with Jan Ullrich.

Lots of mountain biking videos. [via brdg]

How to do the San Francisco bicycle wiggle.

Ancient astronauts. Also, becoming a psychic.

Covers of Kerouac's 'On the Road' from around the world.

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They warned then that adults who had watched a lot of TV as children were more likely to go on to be overweight, to smoke and to have high cholesterol. -Groundbreaking study finds that watching too much TV is bad.

Interview with Tracy Gary, a heiress of the Pillsbury fortune, who has given all her money away.

Nice update on Bonnie Raitt.

There was a bit of action halfway through the stage when a horse that had thrown its elderly jockey decided to take an interest in the cyclists instead. It happened right after the feed-zone and ruined many a cyclist's appetite as the horse bore down on the peloton before being reined-in by a motorcyclist escorting the race. -During yesterday's stage of the Vuelta a España.

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How not to change a bicycle tire in 47 steps.

Interview with Rich Vogel, creator of the website Found Photos.

The Simpsons enters its 17th season and is still the best thing on the TV.

How to help a friend who gets arrested in the middle of the night. [via presurfer]

This is an example of how the shape of different people's ears affects the way we perceive sound. As we grow up, our brain becomes tuned to the way the ear's shape modifies the sound waves we hear. -3D hearing test.

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Send away for a free vegetarian starter kit.

The first cocktail ever was made in Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago, using wine, beer, apple juice and honey. -Cocktails are old, really old. [via slashdot]

Spin of the day.

A collection of butterflies from Honduras.

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Be leary of bottles offered as a bottle to house a message in it, it might be a bottle but is it a bottle they use everyday for the purpose of a message in a bottle. Our product is high quality and we use these bottles everyday, we depend on them as you can depend on us. -Huh? Message in a bottle kits.

List of smoke and smoke-free movies.

Very useful chart for bypassing automated telephone systems. [via j-walk]

Interesting and informative tour of the air traffic control tower at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.

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Neat photo of Everest as seen through an airplane's cockpit window.

Statistics on river systems of the world.

Spanish olives providing energy in Northern Ireland.

Russian Denis Menchov in full suffer mode as he loses over five minutes in yesterday's stage of the Vuelta a España, and hands the lead over to Spanish favorite Roberto Heras.

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This site is dedicated to the fabrication and perpetuation of fear, hate and disgust for the Potato Bug. Please, won't you join us? -potatobugs.com.

Where to view wild penguins. Also, polar bear tracking.

The Space Flag.

A very large set of photos on Flickr from inside Houston's Astrodome. [via boingx2]

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Make snow at home!

On Thursday, Hatch was on a plane headed for Houston to help hurricane victims at the Astrodome and could not be reached for comment, said Rod Mitchell, a spokesman for Hatch's lawyer, Michael Minns. -A spokesman for his lawyer? What a tangled web. 'Survivor' winner Richard Hatch facing a variety of charges including wire, bank and mail fraud.

How to play 18 different kinds of "Tag" games.

"Polygamy" -From An Illustrated Approach to a Bigger and Better Vocabulary.

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World Naked Gardening Day. Yikes.

Fantasy Fashion League - The fashionista’s answer to fantasy football!

Demonstrating and Civil Disobedience: A Legal Guide for Activists.

"Sweetheart, this is New Orleans," said Joe Bellomy, a 24-year-old bartender who sat at the bar even after his shift ended and drank with the other bartenders doing the exact same thing. "We drink 14 hours a day here." -Johnny White's, a French Quarter bar, has yet to close.

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Emergency war surgery.

Identifying mysterious political buttons.

Nigerian-related humor.

A brief summary of African popular music.

National Press Photographers Association article on Hurricane Katrina.

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Trinidad & Tobago brain buster.

BBC: Donated brains 'in short supply'. Won't you help?

Natural Disaster Reference Database.

Neat-o interactive anatomy of a water flea.

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The spin is this isn't the time to point fingers, even as the regime apologists say there is much blame to go around, all the way from the mayor of New Orleans to the Governor of Louisiana. The limited hang-out is FEMA's "incompetence," which may, eventually, cost Michael Brown his job. -Righteous angry rant. [via robotwisdom]

Useful information on Karl "Born on the 25th of December" Rove.

Investors and Hurricane Katrina.

Top 10 reasons to eat macaroni and cheese.

Embark on a profitable journey via a ramen noodle export program!

A Ewing Oil Company toy truck.

A collection of World War II US Merchant Marine posters.

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Because people have been so indoctrinated by evolution, they tend to think that because someone lived in a cave, they were primitive -- they were not as advanced as us or something like that. -Cavemen and the Bible.

Slang terms for money. More. Even more.

So you want to be a guide dog trainer?

Neat illustration of a 1914 Indian V-Twin motorcycle.

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From around two and a half years ago, he began collecting his urine and excrement in styrofoam containers and storing them in a shed in his back yard. At almost the same time each morning and evening, he goes out in the yard and prepares a 'stew' made from garlic, bananas and fish guts, then he'll soak a bath towel into the hot concoction and hang it out on the clothesline. -Crazy man angers neighbors in Japan.

AP: A day in the life of a Chief Justice.

Our son enjoyed watching his third San Francisco Grand Prix cycling race yesterday. We did too. Results and photos here.

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The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone.

Panoramic images of Scotland, Ireland, and the Australian outback.

The Bald Guys Motorcycle Club.

Pirates in Dominca.

Happy Labor Day. Now get back to work.

Reviews of Swiss, British, American, and Mexican beers.

Lexicon of drinking.

Large collection of unusual wine labels.

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Homer Simpson has been described as a kind of modern American everyman, and it is worth considering The Simpsons as a cycle in the tradition of the medieval mystery plays, the similarity lying in the ritualistic form rather than moral content. -Long interesting article on the role of repetition in entertainment.

Handwashing in emergency situations.

USGS list of significant floods in the United States during the 20th century.

From a nice collection of fish illustrations at the Danish Veterinary and Agricultural Library.

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Currently the bank is not a destination, but a bothersome errand. By creating a warm and welcoming environment where customer service representatives truly know their customers and provide valuable financial guidance, banks will become a destination spot. -Banks are no longer banks. Or something.

San Francisco Chronicle's coverage of Burning Man.

The psychology of lawn bowling.

Alternative money systems.

Various license plates belonging to toy train collectors.

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Ideally, lights should flash in an irregular pattern and alternate colors. Some colors tend to be more effective than others. For example, white lights are good at distances, while red and blue lights are poor in dark or very bright conditions, but work well when used with other lights. -From an informative article entitled 'So you want to drive an ambulance?'

Crowd photographs. [via metafilter]

While I don't have much respect for those looting in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, it's hard to fault a man for liberating a tub of beer during desperate times.

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NY Times photographer Vincent Laforet's photos of New Orleans.

A few photos from inside the eye of Hurricane Katrina. [via metafilter]

Detailed graphics and photos explaining the New Orleans levee system.

Ham radio and Hurricane Katrina.

The peloton snakes through the Spanish countryside during stage 5 of the Vuelta a España.

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European cyclists come to the aid of NYC'c Critical Mass.

Six years ago today I started this weblog. It has been and continues to be a very enjoyable obsession/form of therapy. While updating does get a bit tiresome at times, it's mostly been a fun ride. Thanks for reading.