OR-Live. Live and recorded webcasts of surgery. Gasp at the Brain tumour resection, swoon at the hip replacement, tune in this afternoon for the Robotic Prostatectomy.

Dr Ambedkar , champion of the Dalits (untouchables) and creator of the Indian Constitution, died 50 years ago on Thursday. There are tensions as the day approaches. more inside

Carbon Offsets. Sure they are critised as enviro indulgences, an easy out for rich western polluters and governments alike. But then again, they are for real. New offset organizations are popping up all the time, so it pays to do some reseach before chosing your provider.

Goodsearch.com Yahoo-powered search engine that gives to charity when you search with it. (Via) more inside

WTFWJDFAKB?

Econ 101 at the U. of Chicago. Conservatives have long critiqued academia for the ways professors use their position to indoctrinate students with left-wing ideology, but the left has largely ignored the political impact of the way people learn economics, though its influence is likely far more profound. So in order to find out just what students learn when they learn economics, I headed down to Hyde Park, where the University generously let me enroll in “Principles of Macroeconomics” for a quarter. Good article. more inside

hheh-heh, hheh-heh, you said ...

Attack of the clones Dutch artist Bert Simons, suffering from a mid-life crisis, decided to clone himself to become immortal. By means of state-of-the-art computer multiplication techniques he found a way for you to build your own Bert clone! (1.2 MB PDF) He is currently in the process to clone a female specimen. (NSFW: cardboard nudity) [via]

Nazi Propaganda Posters, from the German Propaganda Archive. Some are impressive, some are, well, camp. Here's a Beetle ad, and here's one from the 1939 Nurmeberg Peace Rally (cancelled due to war). And this one is for the odious and infamous film, The Eternal Jew. Here are some stills. more inside

Horseballs [SFW]

It's Moon Base Alpha! "NASA said it will establish an international base camp on one of the moon's poles, permanently staffing it by 2024, four years after astronauts land there." Projected bill: US$104 billion.

Frame 352, and all that - The Patterson-Gimlin 'Sasquatch' footage, given a decent objective squint by Darren Naish, Zoologist. more inside

Military jams garage doors in quest for national security. A U.S. Air Force signal from Cheyenne Mountain renders automatic garage doors inoperable. Owners left to open doors manually like some godless Communist.

Booker Prize Winner Ian McEwan under fire. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, winner (2002) of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Ian McEwan's novel Atonement, currently being developed into a film, has come under fire on charges of plagiarism. more inside

This is an American Citizen A description and pictures of the routine handling Jose Padilla, the only American citizen held without charge as an "Enemy Combatant". more inside

In the Womb: Animals is an unprecedented two-hour world premiere special that takes you inside the hidden world of animal pregnancy. Using state-of-the-art visual effects, computer graphics and real-time, moving 4-D ultrasound imagery, we can see inside the unique world of animal fetal development in a way never before possible. For the first time, these pictures shed light on how an elephant, a dolphin and a dog develop in the womb. - National Geographic Channel. more inside

The Ross Ice Shelf is in danger of collapsing. This particular piece of ice covers an area the size of France. Its collapse will cause a rise in sea-levels of between 5m and 17m.

The Myth of Thomas Szasz. “Psychiatry is conventionally defined as a medical specialty concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of mental diseases,” Szasz wrote. “I submit that this definition, which is still widely accepted, places psychiatry in the company of alchemy and astrology and commits it to the category of pseudoscience. The reason for this is that there is no such thing as ‘mental illness.’”

Sand in My Eyes! Storybook sand sculptures. These photographs are OK in themselves, but some of the ads beside 'em are probably NSFW.

Cute Mother. SFW.