4:44 Last Day on Earth , now opening in New York and LA, Abel Ferrara's new film, explores what people would do if they knew it was the their last chance to do anything at all. Would you do the same stuff you always do? Or blow it all ahead of time? Here's the trailer.

Lost Mayan city found in Georgia. Called Yupaha, the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto searched for it unsuccessfully in 1540. Now a South African archeologist has hit paydirt! It's on a Cherokee sacred heritage site however... Not sure how that will end up playing out as excavations continue. The researchers are saying the Cherokees never built these ruins, which date to around the year 800.

Genius girl fights for life at a hospital in Pakistan. Bless her heart!

accumulonimbus ,an mp4 animation by Andy Kennedy.

What is a Japanese goblin good for? Inspired art, as near as I can tell. I wish I could translate some of this, but it's fun to play with these many links. Some are drawings, some a sensual forming of paper-mache, if you can believe that. more inside

What kind of a brain? is designed to implode in the race for new ideas? Not the monkey brain so much. It's those hide-bound humans we have to watch... more inside

In Today's Society, Are You Master of Your Own Skin? Having found a publisher's proof copy of The Yankee Way to Simplify Your Life, which principles I'm trying to apply to my own life (up to a point), there is a reference to spanking children with books bound by the flayed flesh of criminals. Not popular today. But looking into it, I was led to the Boston Athenium for the story of the referenced highwayman who claimed to be "master of his own skin," thence on his way to become the book binding on his confession... But it turns out that not only criminals observed the practice. The Athenium link also notes that a famous beautiful lady had her skin put up on a treatise of astronomy. More on such practices here.

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).

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

Must the multiverse come from a Big Bang? Does the idea of parallel universes resonate much?

The Story of the Dancing Frog looks like a cute tale of loss and rebirth, as it were. The sample illustrations are charming in their sophisticated, loose simplicity... Their style reminds me of Tadpole's Promise, illustrated by Tony Ross...

Curious George: Best Internet? I had had SO much trouble with trying to keep up an internet connection lately. I mean HOURS, total days even trying to get Verizon dsl to work a simple (I won't even mention, Netgear - may their router AND their "switcher" cum "ladder" become crushed, and then ground into dust, before being burned...) But we don't even HAVE cable TV right now. They do make curious offers. I would love some kind of advice! Should I switch?

Coon songs were once popular. Today they are viewed as negative. Usually performed by white vaudeville performers in blackface, they made fun of an oppressed people at the turn of the century... more inside

Julia Gillard is the new Prime Minister of Australia. It would be as if Hillary were named as the acting president of the United States, should Obama step down and be able to name his successor. But that would require a real sea change. Oh, that's right. There IS a sort of a sea change going on in the Gulf of Mexico... Still, Julia Gillard is unique by many standards. Called “an unmarried female atheist redheaded migrant Prime Minister,” she promises a budget surplus for Australia by 2013. A carbon emissions tax and a share in the mineral wealth of the country for all it's citizens sounds to me like her plan. more inside

The hydrogen bomb blast after the fourth of July in 1962 might be the scariest fireworks display ever, but let's just take this as a springboard for fireworks horror as a whole. It's not Guy Fawkes Day, but let's just share our own stories!

The Age of Nanobotic Goo could make all of our pollution and oil slick problems go away through *bioremediation*. Yet many other kinds of goo might be possible - even the Scifi horror imagined in Michael Crichton's Prey. In short, rather than ushering in the Promised Age of universal health and wealth, the planet may just end up being covered in grey goo. more inside

Strong man Joe Rollino has died. Over a hundred years old, he was taken out by a mini van collision. Already he was strong a a child, as shown in the New York Times article. He will be missed, but more children of strength will keep up the tradition. Guliano may be the strongest boy. Then there's Maevax, who may well be the strongest little girl. (That's 125 kg or 275 pounds she is bench pressing for reps.) Some have said that lacking the gene for myostatin will create such power from birth... But the feats of strength I've listed were not done by people with huge muscles... more inside

Gorgonocephaus (aka Basket Star) is a Gorgon's head in a basket somehow. Links to Star Wars too.

Fungus and Frogs are the subject of an upcoming television special... It seems that a frog killing fungus has gotten so bad that infected frogs might need diluted Clorox bleach for deep cleaning. (Note that a previous post reported the suggested use of yet more anitibiotics to fight this fungus.) But as usual and especially also, habitat destruction with chemical and pesticide run-off into the streams needs to be curtailed if we are to hear the piping and croaking that is such a bloved part of a beautiful summer's day.

A good retro interface is worth a whole bunch of links. Some of these click-ons are still in development, so I'll prob'ly revisit this site. Here's more on hats. And another. And then there's Mr. Monkey's hat selections (previously). Question is, should I wear my Fidel style hat anyway? Sergei Khrushchev laughed at that one when he signed his book on Nikita at a lecture on the Cuban Missile Crisis, although it turned out his father really didn't much like Fidel...