Les Bubb's Mutant Mime Act, with dashes of prop comedy, illusions, lip syncing and influences from Bill Irwin to Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean to Howie ("no, not the rubber glove!!") Mandel. Some repetition among the 4 clips but still a lot of fun. (recommended by Evanier)

This may be a valuable tool for that new CSS3 webstuff. Or not.

Death, or Near Death? Hospice care for my daughter was a good way to improve her recent passing - hopefully helping her toward some kind of afterlife. But the near death experience alone was beautiful in its own way, and has been documented by many others (Previously).

God's Wife Edited Out of the Bible -- Almost. God's wife, Asherah, was a powerful fertility goddess, according to a theologian.

RSA Animate - The Internet in Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens? "Does the internet actually inhibit, not encourage democracy? In this new RSA Animate, Evgeny Morozov presents an alternative take on 'cyber-utopianism' - the seductive idea that the internet plays a largely empancipatory role in global politics."

If I can't fly with the penguins... . then let me swim with the baby elephants more inside

New Death Ritual Found in Himalaya—27 De-fleshed Humans. In high cliffside caves, explorers find 1,500-year-old bones.

RadioCollective.org Listening to independent radio just got easier. RadioCollective.org aggregates the most recommended commercial-free programming in the world. Tune in 24/7.

"The Lost Thing" by Shaun Tan. [Via]

How the human penis lost its spines [Via]

London or Otherwise UK Meetup! I'm going to be in the UK (Cambridge specifically) till 20 Mar. So now would be a good time to arrange a meetup or three? more inside

Audio slideshow: Human Planet. "From the icy Arctic to Africa's dense jungles - and the mountain tops of Mongolia to the deep waters of the Pacific - the BBC series Human Planet has explored mankind's incredible relationship with nature." [Via]

Self-Doubting Monkeys Know What They Don’t Know.

Build Your Own "Watson Jr." in Your Basement by an IBM insider. Maybe not powerful enough to win on "Jeopardy", but you'll probably clean up on "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?"

Animal Beatbox [YouTube, weapons-grade earworm] is the most recent winner of Australian short film festival TropFest. Finalists are listed here, and all are available to watch on the TropFest YouTube channel. more inside

NZ - another quake Tracicle. I hope you and family are ok.

Originally composed for Civilization 4 Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin has been awarded a Grammy. The lyrics are an arrangement in Swahili of the Lord's Prayer (that's quite a wiki entry, by the way). This is the first time a composition for computer game has been awarded by the Recording Academy.

To Talk With Aliens, Learn to Speak With Dolphins.

Same old, same old humans according to a new study based on tool making strategies. "A systematic comparison of variability in stone tool making strategies over the last quarter-million years shows no single behavioral revolution in our species' evolutionary history." more inside

Don't Fear the Reaper on Discworld From the So Bad It's Good department: a fan-made video of the Classic Rock staple using scenes from a lamely-animated version of Terry Pratchett's "Soul Music" that made the personification of Death look like Skeletor from He-Man.