Missing Link? "The last probable common ancestor to humans and great apes had a body like an ape, fingers like a chimp and the upright posture of humans, according to researchers who unearthed a fossil of the animal in Spain." What with all the evolution/creationist talk going round, this seemed serendipitously timely...even providentially so... more inside

Movie of a Chimp doing Karate - embedded Quicktime movie. Of a chimp doing Karate. For all I know, he could be hiding in his dojo. Obviously, you need Quicktime for this. Via Screenhead

Hehehe

Ornette does Disney Double takes might seem in order when the names Ornette Coleman and Walt Disney appear in the same sentence, let alone in close organizational cahoots. But there was Coleman, creating his instantly identifiable modernist magic in the architecturally phantasmagorical new Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. more inside

Is This Truly New Jersey? Home of Kevin Smith of Clerk's fame, a couple of New Yawkuhs define the essence of 'joisey'. Do they succeed? Read on.

Roll your own radio. If you've got an MP3 player and iTunes (Mac or PC), you can build your own daily audio digest, piece by piece. Here's how: more inside

Jim Crow stories: personal narratives, in audio and text. [via mefi]

"A time to heal, in which the author issues a few heartfelt political apologies." Despite being horribly tired of politics, this made me laugh.

Wole Soyinka: The Reith Lectures The Nobel prize-winning poet, playwright, and political activist discusses the current climate of fear in the world and how it's changed since the Cold War.

Early Office Museum. Lovely old doodads from copying machines and pencil sharpeners to key-driven calculators. And, of course, typewriters.

Gay Gordons Come on, admit it. You're intrigued, aren't you? It looks like fun. Ok, maybe you wouldn't want your friends to catch you doing it. You'd feel a bit funny having your picture taken while you're trying it out. Sure, we can all understand that. But still, it's tempting isn't it? Resist no longer, let your feet lead you to... The Gay Gordons.

Meet Little Fretty! Umm, as a guitar player I have absolutely no idea why anyone would use this and it clearly looks like something totally different.

Monk(ey) Minds on Metta. A recent study (PDF) examined changes in the brains of meditating scanning their brains while they practiced compassion (metta) meditation. The project was a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin and the Shechen Monastery in Nepal. more inside

The Kleptones have once again created another masterpiece Mashing up some of the best Queen hits with Hip Hop music, "A Night at the Hip Hopera" is a beautiful compilation that is sure to entertain. more inside

Using punctuation to say what you mean - ze frank brings you the ultimate in passive agressive communication.(requires sound)

Curious George: Realtor listings. I'm looking at land on realtor.com. Is there any way I can pull up expanded listings at 1 a.m. without having to wait until morning for a Realtor(TM) to intervene? I'm sitting here trying to shop for rural properties, and I have all the maps I need, but I have to deal with their sucky website that doesn't give expanded listings, and thus won't show directions or location of most rural properties. Anyone ever get around this hurdle from the comfort of home?

Curious George - Microphone Best Buys I know that this very topic was discussed here before, but when I did a search it seems that it was lost in the great server crash of 04. I have a couple of good lavs that I use for my video work, but have struggled by without owning a hand held mic or a boom mic for a while, either renting or borrowing them from friends. I just bought a "butt plug" transmitter and receiver for a hand mic and would like to get one (i.e. a quality hand mic) that I can use for ENG type stuff as well as doing VO in my edit bay. I also would like to buy a high quality boom mic rig and in a perfect world the same mic could be used as an on camera mic when the situation calls for that sort of shooting. more inside

What is an American movie now? (NYT) Talk amongst yourselves.

Where the Wild Things Walk {mov}

Independant World Television I was at this conference and one of the speakers was Paul Jay, of CBC's Counter Spin. He very passionately spoke about this: the idea of a world independant media, not owned by a corporation and completely dependant on donations. Apparently it should get off the ground by 2006. Good idea? Complete flop? Will you get behind it?