Maps are latest casualty of government secrecy (PDF). For the first time since WWII, the U.S. defense mapping agency will curb public access to aeronautical maps, charts, and databases next year. Slated to become historical relics are the famous TPC charts and other worldwide chart sets, online maps and SPOT imagery, and the only source of detailed free worldwide airport data. Reasons include "avoiding competition with commercial interests", i.e. the Jeppesen monopoly and conceivably ESRI. What's left are a paltry offering of historical maps.

Just when you thought Coulter and Carlson could not get any stupider... Coulter: They [Canadians] are lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent. Carlson: Canada's essentially -- essentially a made-in-Taiwan version of the United States. There's a nice little movie (quicktime or window's media) outlining the main arguments of Carlson and Coulter.

Curious, George: Good Pet Choice? What a good pet choice besides a cat or dog?. I like cats, but my wife is allergic. We both like dogs, but we live in the city, don't like to scoop, travel out of town a lot and have little kids. What are some other pets you have had? What have been your best and worst experiences?

Ho! Ho! R'lyeh!

FAA reconsiders ban on in-flight cell phone use. Now you can listen to your neighbor bitch about his boss/wife/kids/coworkers/mother-in-law all the way from NY to Seattle. Greeeaaat! (WP link, reg may be required.)

2001 Explained our site is intended for non-commercial and educational purposes only. (Flash)

Blue Christmas: "Our goal here is to provide you information on [what businesses] gave what to what political party this last election cycle.... The long term goal is to help reduce corporate money from politics; this is not a geographical boycott." In the interest of being non-partisan, feel free to also consider this page as "Red Christmas".

Curious George: Tech Problem I'm having some pc trouble, and I'm finding no help. Skip it if you're not interested. more inside

Crappy Gifts '04, PoopReport's annual guide for the poop humor aficionado.

If I win, I'm picking Rutherford Personally, I doubt anyone will meet the $8,000 reserve... more inside

Tea leaf fortune telling (Flash 5 required for the full video version). From the UK Tea Council's interesting site.

Dimebag Darrel (ex Pantera) is dead - & it is possible other members of his new band Damageplan are injured, perhaps including Vinnie Paul. Reports are confused, but some say another band member is dead. more inside

Right at the beginning of the show the author is heckled and he pukes all over his shirt. You can’t really see this but just when things seemed to be going really well the author is heckled again and he wets himself. The pants are hung out to dry and the show goes on. Somehow, magically, the heckler appears on the screen as a DON’T. He is enraged and confronts the author who then s***s his pants. (warning: all links include movies and are possibly NSFW...no nudity, just language) (This is what new book readings are like for the magazine whose next Canadian publisher is supposed to know about "eating a***s on Adderall".)

Curious George: Property Rights This post (and more particularly the follow up here) have me thinking about where the line between an individual's rights and the community's rights should be. more inside

This made me feel sad, a bit of the natural world taken from the city. I first heard of Pale Male on a PBS broadcast, and the story made me feel good, now the hawks have been evicted. more inside

The Online Gallery of Van Gogh's work. I was inpsired by this post on mefi to post an online gallery of another great artist. I'm sure all of you are familiar with his paintings, but for me Van Gogh's most exciting work is his drawings (the gallery has an unbelievable catalog of over 1000 of his drawings). more inside