A house for the little turds. Homemade translation of an Akira Toriyama "Picture Book Special" from Dr. Slump collection number 14 and previously published in Shonen Jump Comics in the early 80's. Features characters Dr. Slump (Prof. Senbei Norimaki) and his robot "little sister", Arale. This English version was put together by hand, as a zine, in the days before Photoshop. (Main link is a 2.9MB PDF)

The Kamagasaki Gallery. Shamelessly stolen from MeFi, an excellent compilation of photos by Shannon Higgins from the biggest slum in Japan which includes descriptions for every one of them. Also in this issue, comfort women for the japanese imperial army during WWII (thanks to humbe).

PETA activists protest by having a pillowfight naked in the snow. "This is nothing compared to what the animals go through," one protester said.

NASA: Rover landed in a former Martian lake. In a press conference today NASA announced evidence that liquid water existed at the Rover Landing site. Senior scientists speculate that the water source could have ranged anywhere from hidden groundwater to a sea the size of one of America's Great Lakes. Though liquid water has long been suspected on Mars, this discovery takes the exploration to a new level.

Finally some porn for the desk jockeys. Sorry, but after all the porn links the other day, I thought this was interesting...

Paul Krugman On Alan Greenspan more inside

Caring for Your Introvert A year-old article, but one of my favorites. Introverts are a much-misunderstood, much-maligned minority group. If you are one, as I am, you'll want to forward this link to all the (annoying) extroverts in your life. If you're an extrovert, please stop talking for a few minutes and read this article. (Atlantic Online)

The new food fad: Black Tomatoes. Eggheads have slaved over a hot greenhouse for years to produce the Kumato. It's black, it's from Galapagos, and it makes your reptiles sexy. Eat one today!

CONELRAD (

Matchstick Rockets - Make little rockets out of matches, paper clips, and other household items.

Writing in the New Republic, Jonathan Chait argues that Ralph Nader has never been a true friend of liberal causees. According to Chait, "The qualities that liberals have observed in him of late--the monomania, the vindictiveness, the rage against pragmatic liberalism--have been present all along. Indeed, an un-blinkered look at Nader's public life shows that his presidential campaigns represent not a betrayal of his earlier career but its apotheosis."

Two hundred twenty spiders and seven hundred pictures. The pirate spider, the camel spider, and of course, the vibrating spider. more inside

RFID in your wallet. Aparently the RFID chip in new US twenties explodes when microwaved. Plans to embed RFId in Euro and Yen notes have been publicly discussed, but this is the first I've heard of it in US currency. I wondered when tv commercials for the new 20s were running last year why on earth they would have to spend money advertising money - now it is becoming clearer. more inside

Curious, George; Where are we? What country do each of us Monkey's live in? What state? Many of us didn't list our geographic status in our bio's. more inside

The Last Panel
via waxy, as usual.

A flexible, elegant, easy-to-use content management system for all kinds of websites. Much like Movabletype. I kind of like the yellow thing it's got going on, and it seems to be easier to use, for me, than Movabletype was a month or so ago. Not saying MT was that hard to use. The template editing just feels easier to me in Textpattern.

Apeonaut. [Via the nightmares of the Argus.]

A Coup in Haiti (Again). Haiti's president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, claims he did not resign, but rather was forced out by the United States. If true, this would obviously violate international law (and US law, insofar as Aristide's wife is a US citizen). For an in-depth discussion, watch today's broadcast of Democracy Now.

Why Can't Everybody Have a Preacher Like This?

The Bloggies are coming! Though, maybe you're more into the Anti-Bloggies instead. Like dogs sniffing crotches, bloggers are obsessed with shiny awards and link-trading. more inside