Possibly fake photo of a panda driving a car.

An illustrated auto glossary.

Subway systems of the world, presented on the same scale. [via coudal]

Cutting the Sugar Cane, from 'Ten Views in the Island of Antigua', 1823. From a British Library virtual exhibit on the Caribbean.

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An interview with Karen Thomas, Hollywood cat trainer.

Your 'Special Day' is perhaps just three weeks around the corner, or it's 14 months from now. You have the perfect grassy spot, the photography, the band, and the food layout plans for all tables outside. You have invited everyone you can, except Mother Nature wasn't invited and She believes in bringing a sudden late morning rain shower, followed by a gusty wind and then a baking hot sun by mid-afternoon. Two hours later, the grass is soggy, two band members had to leave because they didn't have a change of clothes, and the desserts are now on the ground because somehow a 29mph gust can, well, do things like that. -Weather risk management for your wedding and more.

A clickable Tour de France map. Race starts tomorrow in Strasbourg.

Latest betting odds for the Tour de France. Basso, Ullrich, Valverde.

Update: Basso, Ullrich, Mancebo & others barred from Tour. Holy shit!

Pro cycling teams as Simpsons characters. [via podium cafe]

An entry from Bicycling Magazine's "Hey That's My Bike" photo contest.

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BBC: Computers 'set to read our minds' and Womb environment 'makes men gay'.

Upscale organic hot dogs. Ugh.

Three and a half minutes of women of the World Cup. Mostly SFW.

Things that are difficult to say when you're drunk. [via look at this]

Potentially useful diagram on how to deal with worry feelings. Good luck with that.

Interesting look at the history of the publicity caravan that precedes every stage of the Tour de France.

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Neat map of the old (pre-landfill) San Francisco waterfront and locations of buried ships.

Nice website dedicated to legendary Detroit Tigers' announcer Ernie Harwell, from the Detroit Public Library.

Florida forestry and fire-fighting equipment.

Wonderful photo from yesterday's Ghana-Brazil World Cup ballet match.

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American TV sportscasting is full of factoids, full of graphics, full of breakaways from the midst of play for prerecorded human-interest backgrounders, full of color analysts overexplaining what happened a couple of minutes ago even as new, more urgent things are happening in front of our eyes, full of overpacked broadcast booths with three-man teams, sideline reporters, spotters, graphics people and telestrators, all breathlessly jostling for air time. Goals are scored in hockey games, and instead of showing the players celebrating, hyperactive producers cut away to show coaches, random crowd shots, the empty net, the goalie whose expression is hidden behind his mask. A single football play cannot pass without two instant replays; lineups cannot be given without film clips of the players saying their own names. -NY Times blog on US World Cup TV coverage. [via everywhere]

Happy Birthday Wifey :)

Radio signals from various satellites recorded near Stockholm, Sweden. [via coudal]

Twelve pages of railroad posters.

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The demand in the UK and US for hair extensions and cosmetic products with hair extracts means that turning faith into fashion has become big business, earning major temples and exporters revenues of more than $300m last year alone. With most Hindus, who make up 85 per cent of the India's billion-plus population, having their heads shaved at least once as prescribed by the scriptures, hair dealers have clearly tapped into an abundant market. -The hair market in India. Wow. [via robot wisdom]

I Can Breathe!® air filter face masks.

The pharmaceutical industry spends nearly twice as much on marketing as it does on research and development, yet consumers know next to nothing about where this money is going. -European pharmaceutical firms using unscrupulous marketing practices. Film at 11.

Mary's illustrated instructions for making shoes from scratch!

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Make your own glasses. (spectacles.)

How to bathe in a Finnish sauna.

Walking every street in Berkeley.

World drinking tour.

My Happy Hobo Days - by Peter "The California Kid" Hoffman.

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Nice review from the Elvis Costello/Allen Toussaint show in Oakland last week.

Companies who go into sponsorship are aware of the need to show support for the community and not appear to be pandering to us just to get a dollar. -Kinda interesting article on marketing to gays.

Preparing for a terrorist bombing: A common sense approach.

A shot from Saturday's very exciting World Cup match between Mexico and Argentina. I'm not sure how much more of this my heart can take...

A lot of egg trivia.

BBC in pictures: Manila slum life.

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Steve Parish, Jerry Garcia's longtime roadie, does a podcast of some sort.

Lightning and cellphones don't mix.

Alligators and snapping turtles fought for their lives and dead fish rotted on oozing mud flats laid bare when two sinkholes drained the water almost completely out of a 291-acre lake. -A lake in Florida disappears.

Kill a Cyclist: Get 10 Years in Prison. Please don't.

Nice photo of some of the action from yesterday's World Cup match between Australia and Croatia.

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AP: Rob Lowe Gets OK for Massive Dream Estate. Bless his heart.

Dewey Donation System - Helping books find libraries since 2003.

Lots of neat, old tractor brochures, from a very cool site on antique farming.

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Inside the San Francisco Public Library's first new branch in 40 years.

Every city of a certain size has streets like this -- unpolished thoroughfares that simply are what they are. And as they stumble along through districts and trends and a million small dramas, they bear witness to the fact that classic urban streets are like any other living creatures: They have their own unique DNA. -A walk down San Francisco's Kearny Street.

Real-time ship positions on the San Francisco Bay. Way cool. [via coudal]

How to construct a humanure toilet and compost your humanure.

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Pro cyclist Tom Boonen sells lunch meat in Belgium. I did not know that.

Ask Karen a question about food safety!

Why is the sun yellow? Also, why is the sky blue?

A few images of Satchel Paige. A few more.

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Add a splash to tomato juice for an early morning eye opener. -From a list of horseradish tips.

How fast and high do birds fly?

A depression self-test from the good folks at GlaxoSmithKline. [via j-walk]

Lots of information on circus trains. Also, the great circus train wreck of 1918.

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Shill: A man used a decoy; an employee who stands in line to make the box office look busy and walks in without paying. -A dictionary of circus lingo.

How to curse out a World Cup referee from another country. [via kottke]

Snake merchandise.

Daddy Needs A Drink: An Irreverent Look at Parenting from a Dad Who Truly Loves His Kids-- Even When They're Driving Him Nuts. -And how.

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Dressing Up the Plate: A step-by-step guide to creative pickle garnishes.

A scene from yesterday's surprising South Korea-France World Cup match.

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My Father's Day was spent soaking up the sun and enjoying free concerts by innovative songstress Aimee Mann and multifaceted Brazilian artist Seu Jorge. A lovely day.

I felt this one in bed yesterday morning. Did you?

We got winners; we got losers Chain smokers and boozers And we got yuppies; we got bikers And we got thirsty hitchhikers And the girls next door dress up like movie stars Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, I love this bar. -Country singer Toby Keith opens a bar that's like the bar he sings about in his song about a bar.

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Alternative meats. Try the freshly shot haggis!

How to create a celebrity style themed barbecue. 'Cause celebrities rule!

Mora acknowledged his search for buried treasure was getting "totally out of hand." Yet when asked whether he regrets starting the dig, Mora was conflicted. "In a way yes, and in a way no," Mora said, "because I think there's still gold down there." -Excellent story, prolly makin' the rounds, about a man who needs rescuin' after diggin' a 60-foot hole in his backyard whilst searchin' for gold.

People keep getting hit by the Caltrain this year.

A Swedish fan enjoying her team's win over Paraguay during one of yesterday's World Cup games. Take the high road.

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Seems familiar but, common pickle problems.

The Daddle - A saddle for dads. Shhh. [via j-walk]

ARGENTINA!

OLN's Tour de France broadcast schedule.

Race Across America is a nine day bicycle race across, um, America.

Watching the World Cup at a Circuit City store in San Rafael, California.

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How to make unicycle snow chains. Also, a unicycle FAQ.

It is difficult for the ordinary voter to come to grips with the notion that a truly evil man, a truthless monster with the brains of a king rat and the soul of a cockroach, is about to be sworn in as president of the United States for the next four years… And he will bring his gang in with him, a mean network of lawyers and salesmen and pimps who will loot the national treasury, warp the laws, mock the rules and stay awake 22 hours a day looking for at least one reason to declare war, officially, on some hapless tribe in the Sahara or heathen fanatic like the Ayatollah Khomeni. -Hunter S. Thompson in 1987 on George Bush Sr. [via robotwisdom]

Very recent Phil Lesh interview.

In one of my perfect worlds, most everyone would dress like Otto Pfister, the coach of Togo's soccer team. Class.

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Aussie Idiot Drinker Part 2.

AP: Bag of honey, electronic gear shuts Tallahassee airport.

The buffet, she's good.

America's top ten all-you-can-eat restaurants.

Choosing the right shovel.

A short history of the wheelbarrow.

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The past-life memories of children. Or something.

"We felt like the Biggie designation is not what most customers were used to. Most people were used to small, medium and large," a spokesman said. -Wendy's changes their marketing plan. [via kottke]

Gardens of the month.

Product placement in Young Adult books. Lovely.

San Francisco hires nude women to protect Golden Gate Bridge. I did not know that but will investigate. [via mookie]

	An unfair study in contrasts.
Americans watching the World Cup in Mountain View, California.		Italians watching the World Cup in Berlin, Germany.

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Why do we have eyebrows? Also, the useless eyebrows.

Do our ears grow longer with age?

Take your kids to the zoo for free! [tnx mjmc]

Useful illustration of the industrial worker. Excellent. [via neatorama]

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Frequently asked questions about Barbra Streisand.

Frequently asked questions about raisins.

Some history of the football rivalry between England and Argentina.

Andreas Isaksson, Sweden's goalkeeper, during Saturday's World Cup game against Trinidad & Tobago.

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AP: 24 Percent Between 18-50 Tattooed. Kids today...

Vandalized UK traffic cameras. Excellent. [via cynical-c]

Riders climbing the Col d'Izoard in the French Alps during stage 5 of last week's Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré cycling race.

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BBC: Superman 'not gay' says director. Oh.

As promised/warned, a few more photos from the roadtrip we took last month:

A few California Condors chilling on a rock overlooking the Grand Canyon. The views truly are surreal.		Our trustworthy rental car on a bumpy, dirt road facing westward toward the mighty Sierra Mountains. Ha!

A meadow filled with grazing sheep while the view eastward is reflected in the rearview mirror.		The view of Lake Tahoe from just shy of 10,000' up the northern slopes of Mount Heavenly. Good shit.

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Back to normal on Monday.

As promised/warned, a few photos from the roadtrip we took last month:

A motel in Williams, Arizona. We did not stay there but would not object to doing so. Cheap, clean, good.		Gas station, circa 1930's, in the ghost town of Bodie, California. So real it seemed fake. Or something.

Huge brush fire off of Interstate 5 in central California. The flames were so close they nearly licked our car.		Signs seen inside an old garage in the little town of Laws, California. I reckon thems bullet holes.

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Four more tomorrow and back to normal on Monday.

Sea vegetables. Also, Chinese vegetables.

Selecting, preparing, and judging quality vegetables.

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Outer space vegetables.

Moving article about abandoned baby turned high school graduate. Wow.

The Red Sox are trendier than a Louis Vuitton handbag these days, more than three years removed from their last baseball-free October. The championship season of 2004 extinguished years of agony and decades of self-doubt, and it rewarded long-suffering loyalists who knew what it meant to hurt. Unfortunately, it also gave birth to an entirely new generation of wannabes, a nouveau riche that shows up at Fenway Park and acts like Paris Hilton. -Way self-righteous Red Sox fan article. [via sportsfilter]

An entry from the Skin Rash Hall of Fame. Excellent and I'm sorry.

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So we must build walls. A wall obviously across the entire southern border. That’s the answer. That may not be enough—maybe a moat in front of it, or a fire-pit. Maybe a flaming moat, filled with fire-proof crocodiles. And we should probably wall off the northern border as well. Keep those Canadians with their socialized medicine and their skunky beer out. -From Stephen Colbert's recent commencement speech. [via everywhere]

I've finally managed to go through the photos from our roadtrip earlier this month and will post several of the better ones in the next few days.

Full moon names and their meanings.

Marijuana, the silent killer. Also, lots of other silent killers. Damned silent killers.

Bigass crater just found in Antarctica may prove Big Bang theory. Film at 11.

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BusRadio, a start-up company in Massachusetts, wants to pipe into school buses around the country a private radio network that plays music, public-service announcements, contests and, of course, ads, aimed at kids as they travel to and from school. -God help us all and be very afraid. [via everywhere]

Makin' butter. Oh yeah.

Commonly asked questions about butter.

From the first stage of this week's Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré cycling race.

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We took the boy to see an advance screening of the new movie 'Cars' this past Saturday. The animation really is way cool though parts of the movie are really, really loud. Scary loud at times. Nonetheless we give it a few stars.

Frequently asked questions on satan and satanism.

The Tour de France on Google Earth. Cool. [via kottke]

TINTIN will become the first comic strip hero to be honoured by a religious leader when the Dalai Lama presents the Truth of Light award to the Hergé Foundation, named after Tintin’s creator. -Very cool. [via robotwisdom]

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Wal*Mart sells land? Not cool?

Sitting side by side in dark, air-conditioned cabins, the pilot and sensor operator have to interpret activity in terrain as varied as the deserts and towns of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. -Interesting article on flying unmanned aircraft in Afghanistan and Iraq from a base in the Nevada desert. Disturbingly cool. [via robotwisdom]

Interview with a former cheerleader turned MTV hostess. Oh my god, so cool.

'House by the Railroad', a neat image from a large collection of neat images at Planet Perplex. Pretty cool.

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Drinking, random fellowship all part of World Cup world. Cool.

NY Times is keeping an interesting World Cup weblog. Very cool.

Vince Welnick. RIP.

Yachtspotter.com. [via metafilter]

Too large a collection of Hardy Boys book cover art. Also, Norwegian covers.

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She ran footage of Bush, Hitler and Osama bin Laden to her song "Sorry." She worked a merry-go-round contraption like a stripper with a pole. She fondled herself. She flipped the bird. She played electric guitar on "I Love New York" and told the audience they better jump up and down on the next number. "Or I'm gonna get pissed." -Short review of Madonna's recent shows down in San Jose.

BBC: Water firms enjoy healthy profits.

Portuguese food dictionary.

Sample plan of a Roman house.

One of the major roads into Yosemite National Park closed due to landslide.

Lots of photos from Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world. [via look at this]

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Parallels between Alice in Wonderland and The Matrix.

Alice in Wonderland in gender-free format. Wow.

The origins of the game of marbles.

Black toilet paper.

Apologies for yesterday's broken update. I must remind myself not to upload files after consuming cocktails.

Useful schedule of World Cup games on US television. [via kottke]

The replays of the goals are very important. I don't care if I have seen them or I haven't seen them, I want to see them again. Many times. -Useful list of rules for women during the World Cup. [via metafilter]

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FIFA World Cup Predictor Game.

Soccer ball testing and approvals.

Real time map of wild fires around the world. [via robotwisdom]

Posters and other stuff from the Marx Brothers comedy, A Night at the Opera.

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News from NASA: Hole in Ozone decreasing. / Strange clouds.

By crafting product messages mothers will want to share, along with giving them samples, coupons, and a chance to share their own opinions with P&G, the Cincinnati consumer-product giant is using personal endorsements to cut through advertising clutter. "We know that the most powerful form of marketing is an advocacy message from a trusted friend" -Your best friend is a secret marketer! [via j-walk]

Shimano recalling a mess of quick-release front wheels. Beware.

Pro cyclist Jan Ullrich now has his own line of bicycles.

The Evergreen 747 Supertanker. Wow. [via mookie]

White-collar crime: The crash course

M. Chat is a graffiti cat that can be found on the sides of walls (and other things) all over Paris and elsewhere in France (and other countries now). We've always dug spotting him while in Paris and now it appears he has a movie of sorts. [via nag on the lake]

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BBC: Heathrow 'should be phased out. / Mission to target highest clouds.

A bit of video from the Phil Lesh and Friends concert we attended at The Warfield earlier this month. More.

Theodore Roosevelt And Jerry Garcia: Brothers Under the Skin?