Legalized euthanasia in the Netherlands. A Dutch hospital admits to having euthanised 4 severely ill or deformed newborns. more inside

Who do the fans say should be the 2004 Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year"? The usual suspects (Michael Phelps and Lance Armstong) are #1 and #2. But may I suggest the one who is currently #3? more inside

Curious George: Noisy neighborhood? I ran a poll on my phpBB site and found that 17 out of 45 people who responded had a noise problem in their neighborhood that bothered them. These users aren't old folks, either; most are in their 20s. Only 38% said their neighborhood was quiet. How is the noise at your place, and where do you live?

Road Rage Cards. Does anyone else think this is a really stupid bad idea? (Though, at least it's not more of the "Tie The Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ol' SUV" stickers)

Fight! Fight! Fight! An Ask Metafilter thread that no one is following anymore (except for a few of us hopeful technopop fans) has turned into an underground steel cage match between Toxic and Mean. (Sorry to Mefi-watch, but it's pretty funny. Especially since we all know the two main characters. And they think they're alone in the arena. Shh!)

The Periodic Table of Funk If your gonna get your funk on, ya gotta know all the basic elements that are used to build up our funky universe. Who knew Barney Fife was a basic building block of funk molecules?

The first casualty of the '04 elections
Out: Darwinism In: "Intelligent Design" aka creationism lite

Curious George: Weird Music I recently bought a couple of CDs that have made me wonder about the vast soundscapes of strange music out there of which I, as a generally music-as-art-unawares guy, have been missing out on. Edjumicate me! more inside

"Germans aren't exactly a happy-go-lucky people." The latest survey of what Germans fear. Do other countries poll for this sort of stuff?

A global pandemic of Avian Influenza is 'very, very likely' and could kill up to 100 million people, according to the World Heath Organisation, yesterday. Other estimates are less optimistic. Hug, anyone?

The canonical reference of "Your mom" jokes

Man dies at the evil hands of......a shrimp? I would definetely call this an unfortunate series of events.

Drum Lessons - Lesson #1: How to play Rock and Roll rhythm. (.wmv)

Commercial Breaks (90MB avi file) A fascinating programme on BBC2 television about Imagine Software Limited. The Liverpool software giant crashed out during the summer after a life of a little over 18 months, during which time it produced more hype than any other software house before. The company appeared to bask in self-created publicity, much of which was very clever, and so it seems appropriate that its death should also have been as well recorded for posterity by the media it sought for its promotion, as had its successes in life. more inside

Beer History - Do you like beer? Here is the concise history of beer, with no guarantee of accuracy, because the people that compiled it were drunk. more inside

Witnessing to Liberals. By elevating science to supreme authority, [liberal Christians] assume the Bible is a fallible human document, approach Scripture with an antisupernatural bias, and dismiss miracles as the fantasies of ignorant people in biblical times who did not understand the laws of nature. . . . Confronted with such a plethora of unbiblical ideas, conservative Christians might wonder how to begin in evangelizing their liberal counterparts. Following are some guidelines I have found helpful when dialoguing with liberal Christians.

The Hall of Contraception takes a historical look at other forms of birth control. more inside

The Hanging of Mary. Mary killed a man in 1916, and for that she had to hang. The people of Erwin, Tennessee shot her, but the bullets just bounced off. She wouldn't eat poison. And the town didn't have eneough power to electrocute her. more inside

Wow! Wow! Now that is GORGEOUS! more inside

Murder a scarecrow’s story. And other animation from Barbara Mones. [quicktime req]