Books, pictures, and more about China Tales of Old China is an ambitious site with something for nearly everyone. There's a library with an eclectic assotement of titles, some quite unexpected.

8-Track Heaven! Before iPod, mini-disc, CD, Walkman, Bonefone, and assorted crappy cassette players---the perfect accessory to a tricked out bubble-top Ford Van with Mag 600 wheels, dual pipes, and matching bongs...

Bob Dylan talks about songwriting. Insights from an American icon. Whether or not you enjoy Dylan's music and lyrics his perspective in interesting and he is rarely this talkative, especially about the nature of his art. [via ExpectingRain]

I wish I'd thought of that. Microsoft patents the double-click. [Sorry, truly horrible frames]. [more inside]

The Nicest Person in San Francisco A masterly story of an adventure in this city.

Massive Multi-Player Thumb Wrestling - coming soon to bored friends near you!

Curious, George: Am I paranoid, or are they out to get me? Someone has been letting himself into my apartment when I’m not there. What can I do to prove it? more inside

Polier does what reporters should have: A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION. Wrongly accused of having an affair with John Kerry, Alexandra Polier is vindicated through her own hard work and proves that a beautiful blond can have integrity and principals in the disreputable world of politics. (via Metafilter)

Be all that you can be! The Army announced today it is expanding its stop-loss policy theaterwide. This will keep all deployed soldiers in the Army past their separation/retirement dates for as long as their unit is in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for 90 days after returning home. Interestingly there are now 138,000 U.S. troops occupying Iraq, a third that at the peak of the Vietnam War. Can anyone with relatives or friends in the military give us a "temperature check" of how morale is in the service?

Surrealestate: "As the Official Registrar of the Collective Unconscious (TM), we are able to provide you with a title deed to your own unique parcel of this vast ephemeral wilderness." Not to mention a weird computer lady with cleavage and blowy hair speaking to you.

Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow. By Johnathan Corum. Taking the immortal question and applying waveform physics and Strouhal numbers, Corum solves the question that parrots everywhere have been asking each other for the last 19 years. Even though the answer needed a bit of revision. more inside

What does it feel like to get shot? It's better to read about it here than experience it Out There.

19th Century Swedish Copybook. 'This is the first page of my great-grandfather's copybook. There could have been a separate wrapper or cover that did not survive.'
'Dated December 9, 1858, the book was signed by C.Damm, a writing tutor in Wirestad, Sweden. There are 12 pages of handwritten model forms of the Copperplate Script alphabet (sometimes called English Running Hand or Engraver's Script). Side margins appear to have been trimmed off at some time, and new binding holes were punched. The arrangement of pages below seems logical, but punched holes suggest that the leaves were bound in a different sequence. When I received the copybook as a child, the pages were no longer tied together, but wrapped individually in recycled yellow cellophane (smoked ham labels were printed on the cellophane) ... '

Silly Academic Position Titles. Who wouldn't like to be the Assistant Director of the Underclass? Via Arts & Letters Daily

Curious George: Computer Love Ich w more inside

Hen + Zambian Man + flagrante delicto = Suicide - A man commits suicide after having sex with hen. more inside

Urban Open

Never too late to learn copyright law The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter rang up Ray Bradbury, to find out what he thought of Michael Moore's Film, Fahrenheit 9/11. more inside

The Way The Music Died

The Medieval Bestiary: animals in the middle ages. The illustrations of beasts and the accompanying text on illustrations of bests and accompanying text on this site are compiled from from various medieval sources, and are not taken from any single manuscript. From such selections, it's possible to savour the 'beasts', even as the medieval scholar and scribes surely did. more inside