The Compact Disc is 25 Years Old Today Yes, the shiny, shiny disc (disk? Disc.) that forced you to re-buy all your albums for maximum audiophilic eargasms is officially 25 years old today. In a related story, you're old. via OldFilter more inside

Rotten Meat Curious George: How can I detect rotten meat? more inside

In Silicon Valley, millionaires who don't feel rich. “You’re nobody here at $10 million,” Mr. Kremen said earnestly over a glass of pinot noir at an upscale wine bar here.

The 50 best movie robots. more inside

Zombie Bruce Lee is coming back to kick somebody's ass. Sure, there are only, like, three plots in all of kung-fu filmdom and they must all be recycled sooner or later, but do they really need to remake Enter the Dragon? more inside

My Right-Wing Dad A blog about those forwarded emails from Dad. Early on, I dutifully hit the 'delete' button without a second thought, but lately I have taken to reading them... They have a certain thunderous Bush-era tone I find laughably repulsive, yet strangely addictive. My dad said his old boss sends them to him, but where do they originate? Who dreams them up? Karl Rove and friends? Perhaps these messages could be considered menacing, of the same simplistic mindset that gave rise to the Nazi party, or maybe they are the balancing viewpoints of a healthy democracy—what do you think? via DadFilter

Return of Edwyn Collins. Some hopeful news for anyone with fond memories of Orange Juice, Postcard Records, the Sound of Young Scotland, or that song.

Internet Movie Firearms Database (IMFDB). For when you absolutely, positively, have to know who was packing what in Hot Fuzz, for example. more inside

On Philip K. Dick. What is moving in Dick’s madness is his insistence that the surest sign of the madness of the world outside him is the violence that we accept as normal. In “Clans of the Alphane Moon,” he had already glimpsed the possibility that normal governing might be the work of paranoids. This Nixon-era vision becomes, in the VALIS books, a metaphysical truth. “The Empire is the institution, the codification, of derangement; it is insane and imposes its insanity on us by violence, since its nature is a violent one.”

Richard Dawkins Proved Wrong: Half Hour News Hour Canceled

You're Not From Around Here, Are You? Brainy egghead types say we came from flying space rocks. Or, more succinctly: "The researchers calculate the odds of life starting on Earth rather than inside a comet at one trillion trillion (10 to the power of 24) to one against." more inside

The downside of diversity. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for "Bowling Alone," his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.

Angkor was a city ahead of its time. "The technology for harvesting water that enabled the Khmer to thrive also led to their fall, researchers say." [BugMeNot.] more inside

The Road To Clarity. Designing the typeface that will appear on all new highway signs in the United States.

People, Let Me Get This Off My Chest is a 70-song bootleg album composed entirely of a Mr. P. Stanley's commentary to rabid rock music fans. Sublime / subliminal, it's all good. via The Onion AV Club's 15 Masters of Onstage Banter more inside

Squirrels use hot tail action to kick some rattlesnake, uh, tail. Features links to infrared videos of angry, defensive squirrels.

Monkey Suicide. In which the PG Tips monkey dies a thousand deaths. Well, a few, anyway.

The Paranoid Style in American Politics. By Richard Hofstadter, Harper's, November 1964.

Clean your dirty CD's with a banana! Utilizing the special fruitons and other waxagens, the banana makes a perfect CD cleaner! Simply eat, wipe, and shine! It might be the Windex though. via Gizmodo

Karl, we hardly knew ya... Karl Rove to resign at the end of August. Resign for real.