Evil Mad Scientist A Make:Blog for the more geeky, perhaps. In person at the Maker Faire in San Mateo in May this year. Some items also currently appearing in the DIY exhibit at Columbia College, Chicago.

Happy Hina Matsuri, dolls!

Freedom Rocks One man's campaign to solidify the issue.

Advanced Alien Technology Can Save the World So says Paul Hellyer, a Canadian, former minister of defense.

An American Muslim. "Over the last 30 years of American Islamic life, Hathout and his anti-hierarchical sentiments have butted heads with a renewed conservatism that took hold of the world’s Muslims during the financial rise of the oil monarchy in Saudi Arabia and its ultratraditional Wahhabi math-hab (school) of Islam...Hathout is trying to counter foreign interference into Islam in the U.S. by emphasizing its American side, and by stressing that Saudi Wahhabists are no more qualified than American Muslims to speak on Islamic issues."

Cerebro! "We Feel Fine is a software engine that harvests human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world’s newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases 'I feel' and 'I am feeling'. The result is a database of several million human feelings, with about 20,000 new feelings added each day." Click on the little floating bubbles and get brief text thoughts from various blogs. The squares show pictures as well. Flash! more inside

Cleanse thyself! How do you rid yourself of allergies, diabetes, psoriasis, fatigue, blood circulation (problems), (repair) organ functions and arthritis? Simple! Wash your feet! more inside

New pictures of Jupiter from the lame-named New Horizons probe.

Swiss (accidentally) invade Liechtenstein! "Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition."

Mon KEYS

The age of the mega-skyscrapers. "Five years after September 11, well into what was expected to be the post-skyscraper era, a boom of increas­ingly improbable proportions is underway and it shows no signs of abating. Like a bar graph mea­suring increased faith in the future, the towers keep getting taller—after lingering for decades around 1,400 feet, the height now needed to achieve a jaw-dropping wow-factor is approaching 2,000 feet."

Police chase goes a bit wrong [Youtube] Neat footwork by the lad on the bike, though he's probably adjusting his tactics in future Via.

Floating Neutrinos A host of rafts and plans for a floating island built entirely from recycled junk. The Son of Town Hall, built entirely from junk found in the streets of New York, crossed the Atlantic in 1997.

Bill Shatner in a recording session. As heard on the Howard Stern show. Streaming audio.

Mom? Can I play Tsunami? The UN and ISDR has come up with a game designed to teach kids about disaster-preparation... more inside

Was Wagner a secret transvestite? And why did he keep his passion for bustles secret? Maybe because he was scared of being cleansed with one of these?

New York City Council approves ban on racial slur. The non-binding measure, asks New Yorkers to voluntarily stop using the "n-word." more inside

US Army to Fox's "24": Just Stop with the Torture Scenes Each season of “24,” which has been airing on Fox since 2001, depicts a single, panic-laced day in which Jack Bauer—a heroic C.T.U. agent, played by Kiefer Sutherland—must unravel and undermine a conspiracy that imperils the nation. With unnerving efficiency, suspects are beaten, suffocated, electrocuted, drugged, assaulted with knives, or more exotically abused; almost without fail, these suspects divulge critical secrets. . . . Earlier this month, Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan visited the set of 24 to urge its makers to cut down on torture scenes. He told the show's producers, "I'd like them to stop. They should do a show where torture backfires. The kids see it and say, 'If torture is wrong, what about 24?' more inside

The Danish Poet. The winner of this year's Oscar for animated short. It's cute, funny and colorful. Co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Narrated charmingly by Liv Ullmann.

Stromboli is at it again. The island of Stromboli (made famous by the eponymous film) is suffering another eruption. You may be able to watch live via this dodgy webcam, but if not, here is a link to a number of other volcano cams, and here are some pictures of previous eruptions. more inside