Milan's Icebar You pays your money, and you gets to drink your Absolut vodka out of an ice cup, while standing at an ice bar, in 23° weather, in a parka and rubber boots. Just like in Sweden... but in Italy. Why?

I'm mad, so here's stuff on confocal microscopy. Since Gregory Cardinal Pell has managed to piss me off today, I have decided to tell people about confocal microscopy. Confocal microscopy can create some amazing images. Cardiac myocytes - heart muscle cells Bone cells a nerve cell single cell critters I've no idea. If you are at all interested in how these images were generated, there's more inside

Curious George: Posting to Usenet. What are some good ways for posting to Usenet for free, not counting Google Groups? more inside

From Beyond the Grave The late Dame Barbara Cartland, having written and published more than 700 books in her lifetime, left behind her the manuscripts of 160 romances. That's 13 years' worth of books.

ipod socks: The fads never end for this ubiquitous toy.

More Moore, Moran Those GOPers and Cons who believed that Michael Moore would explode/kill himself if Bush won are sorely disappointed. In fact, MM has just aanounced plans for a "Fahrenheit 9/11" sequel. But "Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2" sounds kinda lame. Anybody have an idea for a better title?

raed in the midde I called my family to see what was happening there. One of our friends living in Abu-Ghreib told us about how a US helicopters attacked their entire neighbourhood after a US patrol was attacked from that area. He said that they have holes in the ceilings of their house because of the random attack. This collective punishment is very close to how the israeli forces treat Palestinians, trying to put pressure on the civilians not to accept any fighter in their street. As if it was the civilians� duty to go after fighters and stop them. My family said that many districts in the west of Baghdad are blocked, the streets leading to the areas near the airport (Al-Jihad, Al-Amryya, Al-Ghazalyya, Al-khadraa, and others) are closed due to street fighting. The airport highway is closed too. They said that the sound of explosions and bullets is continuous. My uncle lives in Ad-Dora in southern Baghdad, and they are having similar street clashes there too.

Ephemerata, both Natural and Artificial. The Museum of Emphemerata in Austin, TX is host to a number of bizarre items. With the Grand Closing of the current show coming this weekend, it seemed like a good time to feature the place.

Arctic Thaw = Good News! Global warming got you down? Don't worry, there's a silver lining! more inside

Teen Democrats in Minnesota beat down teen Republican with a baseball bat. "Two days after John Kerry lost to George Bush, three of his teen supporters got into a dispute with a Bush-supporting schoolmate at their Minnesota Zoo School of Environmental Studies, and after some juvenile taunting, the budding Democrats beat the other teen with a baseball bat: Three high school students, one allegedly armed with a bat, were charged with attacking a pro-President Bush classmate after he reportedly said only gays would support Sen. John Kerry. ... The alleged assailants have all been charged: one with felony assault

Tips for visiting Santa. Such as, "Talk and chat with your toddler, distracting him or her from Santa as you walk up to Santa. Then quickly set the child in Santa

Yassir Arafat is Still Dead!!! The news coverage of Arafat's impending death brought to mind an old Saturday Nite Live Bit. Am I the only who was reminded that Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!!. Looks like I was not Alone.

The Italian Campaign The Globe and Mail has been running an excellent series on the Italian Campaign during WWII by Canadian troops. There are photos, artifacts, and articles, including one by Farley Mowat. (x-posted to MeFi)

The Fantastic Four teaser trailer - Just what it says. The reason I link to a Google page is that the host site does not have a published link yet, & this is to avoid hotlinking. The link is there, just go do that voodoo that you do do so well. Seen @ Sensible Erection which is NSFW

Curious, George: HeaterFilter. How to heat an old house with an amazingly old gas furnace. more inside

It's Diwali tomorrow. - also known as Deepavali, the festival of lights. Probably too late to lay in a brass Ganesh, or a hamper, but you could whip up some Diwali food, and maybe put up Diwali wallpaper.

Don't forget 11 o'clock. Today's the day the guns fell silent (for some). Now more than ever we should remember them. No more inside.

Word Count
"WordCount™ is an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonality. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use it. The smaller the word, the more uncommon it is."

Can you turn crappy vodka into good vodka using nothing more than a Brita filter? A team of scientists set out to find whether a 1.5L bottle of shit vodka can be charcoal filtered to smoothness. The opinion of the panelists was that the result after 5 filtrations was exceptionally smooth and better in this respect than Ketel One, although it did not posess its character.

Curious, George: Food, glorious food! I'm sitting in my (slightly gross) dorm room, trying to think of food I can easily make with my electric kettle, the slightly risky microwave in the lounge, or my bare hands. I've got a tiny fridge, but as grocery shopping occurs rarely, long lasting foodstuffs are a plus. What are your favorite bizarre/easy/comforting snack foods from those first "Oh my god, mom's not here to cook me dinner" days/months/years? Extra points if it's vaguely healthy!