Petrarch the father of Humanism, is 700. The Petrarchan Grotto is worth a look, or check out the story of Petrarch and Laura. The old chap is in reasonable condition , given that he's been dug up a few times. Except that his head has been replaced with a woman's.

Wanna be a Carny? Gotta learn the lingo. Also through this site: American circus lingo, Brit/Euro slang, Vaudville slang, and Audio Samples thereof. more inside

Kuma\War , an online game service "that allows players to experience re-creations of real world military events weeks after they occur," has just launched a "Stories From The Front" contest to find the most compelling real battle story from a U.S. soldier. The winner and three friends will appear in the playable episode as 3D game characters, and in a broadband video. Is this cool or sick?

This article claims that Bush in retreating into his own little world and that he is not handling his job well at all. This one claims that he's taking anti-depressants. We can hope that things will not turn out well for him. (Both articles Capital Blue)

V.S. Ramachandran's Illusions uncover how your brain makes sense of motion. more inside

A little something to help Tracicle fill up that 40gig iPod... the Red Ferret Journal's 1 Million Free and Legal Music Tracks Wiki.

Curious George: Kerry waffles? Does anyone know whether Kerry lives up to the allegations that he waffles on issues, or is this taken out of context? I manage a large, closed phpBB board, and Bush supporters, who have a 41% lead over Kerry supporters according to a poll I ran last week (90 votes), seem largely fixated on this one point.

Bush Campaign Advice For Americans

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?" said Susan Sheybani, an assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt.

Magical Stories of the Hijras. In India, 100,000 hijra eunuchs are a caste unto themselves. [Via Disinformation.]

Ever wondered if they know? Sure, music taste is subjective. But there should be some simple touchstones that everyone can agree are truly over-rated and their popularity detrimental to the overall state of music. Then, of course, there are the albums that everyone is REQUIRED to like, regardless of them being any good (see here). more inside

Well, whaddya know, it's the July Surprise. (More inside)

Jon Stewart talks to Ted Koppel. "I know my role, I'm the dancing monkey."

The Abyss - a dynamic artwork (Flash) An interactive journey, following one man's internal journey through grief, anger, loss of faith, understanding, acceptance, and healing.

Is it a picture or a painting? - There is recent speculation that 17th century artist Johannes Vermeer used a precurser to the camera, the Camera Obscura, to create his incredibly detailed paintings. The result is an interesting blurring between artistic and scientific mediums.

Phonebashing Do we believe that vandalism is a valid form of protest?

"for your veiwing pleasure, several movie clips depicting our work! All these clips have been recorded very recently and are no bigger than 1MB (all are in quicktime format). All the people concerned are real members of the public and no one was refunded for the loss of their mobile telephone."

I don't. I sympathise with the victims trying to get the police to take the crime seriously.

Francis Crick dead at 88. more inside

Fight fire with fire; fight dung with dung. I don't remember this in Dante, but it must appear somewhere within Malebolge: a smoky, stinky blaze in the dried crust of a three-acre manure lagoon on a dairy farm.

Kaleidoscope. Euh?

Are you a Claymate? No? Would you like to be Clayverted?. You might have a chance to score points with the Claymate of the Week if you do. Please note, that if you do clayvert, to bash anyone that says anything bad about Our Clay.

Great Hackers
(second post today, I know, but it's a great essay)