America Loses Its Stature as Tallest Country

From the Washington Post:
"Komlos and others noted that the contemporary American diet, while plentiful, has become less nutritious in some ways, especially in recent years, which has helped fuel the obesity epidemic, particularly among children. So while Americans are no longer the tallest, they are among the widest."

Uncle Ted in Trouble

And Uncle Don and our new Aunt Lisa, too. Read the news.

More chem

Also, a fairly sensible explanation of oxidation and reduction.

Plus, best chemistry word so far today: Zwitterion.

Atomic orbitals

Explained. Quite clearly. Unlike in the chem book I've been reading.

Man vs Woman vs Planet

Earth mamas and eco-warriors. Or are gender differences just junk? I'm never entirely sure, but here's a Grist piece anyway.

Space Beer

New Scientist has the low down on alcohol in space.

HS Teachers Rap

There were no teachers like this at my high school.

Kitten Care

Want to take your kitty outside? How about in a stroller!
Or maybe kitty should stay inside and play with a motor mouse in a bubble, or the whack-a-mouse ball. And if you get tired of holding the laser pointer, why not try the hands free version?

My kitten is perfectly happen at the moment sitting on the back of the couch and playing with my hair...

Good enough for government work

--- and it's real news!

Seafood

Double check if it's really okay to eat. And I'm not talking about smelling it!

South African Blogosphere

Globalization at work: Amatomu.

WOW Russia!

Everything you ever needed to know about the world's largest country. Serious.

getting down with global warming in Vermont

I hope these kids get awesome grades on this video as a senior project, or that it gets them into the colleges of their dreams.

Summer Explosives Camp

You know, for the kids!

film

15 environmental movies

that's no moon. it's a melon!

Cuke Skywalker says 'eat organic!'

Watch out for the Squirrels

They're mean!

US Falling Behind

Not only do we suck at math & science, our internet connection is lame, too.

Kitty Questions

Surely you must have something better to worry about than this?

Limerictionary

It seems that some folks have enough time
To write dictionary definitions in rhyme
Does the world need 'em?
Someone will read 'em--
The net's all about fascinating waste of your time!

More education is always better

Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well. -Peter Ustinov, actor, writer and director (1921-2004)

Bad News for Kyoto

China overtakes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter

Geology

Plate tectonics, explained with oreos!

Strange News

Man in wheelchair takes ride on semi's grille
PAW PAW -- A young man has quite the story to tell after his wheelchair got lodged in the grille of a semi truck, which pushed the chair and the man inside for five miles down a road.

Quote

I get up every morning determined both to change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning the day difficult. -E.B. White, writer (1899-1985)

Faux Glow

The ultimate high life nightlife accessory.

Illustrated Incan History

An awesome mural.

The Yeti

I love webcomics.

Creepy

Severed orca fin found.

Chocolate Beer Cake

This is the best idea ever! I am so making some permutation of these recipes:
1 2 3 4

Intrepid folks at my alma mater

Hunting squirrels and saving money for reslife.

The dark side of Craigslist

House stripped by malicious intent

Math & Science

Why I might think about working for NOAA.

Confused by mass media?

Here's the scoop on climate change.

Marine Mammals

Tigers demonstrate diving skillz

How many & how much?

Enter your birthdate, and this calculator will tell you how much methane you've contributed to the atmostphere (ie farts), how much chocolate you've eaten, how many pills you've taken, microwaves owned, elections voted in, etc, etc.
Human Footprint from Channel 4

Rust Dust

Recruiting Plankton to Fight Global Warming. I'm skeptical of quick fixes, especially when we don't particularly know what the long term effects on the ocean system will be.

Bad News

"Interior proposes expanding drilling in Alaska, elsewhere"

Seal talk

Ark! Arrrkh! Arruk!

Suggestions if getting a car

The meaneast vs the greenest automobiles, 2006.

(Hint: Don't buy a Jeep Grand Cherokee.)

Hope

Steven Pinker says we're getting nicer every day. (pdf)

All the news worth reading

I get my news stories from Tidepool, but my boyfriend prefers Metafilter. That way we can forward each other interesting, but usually not overlapping, items.

Maybe there's hope after all

America's Greenest Leaders

And the little girl grew up to be a vegetarian

probably a feminist, too.

рыбка (fish)

If you don't know Russian, it won't be funny

Ослов Осел Ослович

More foreign music clips

Lyapis Trubetskoi, Belarus
Kapital - They are publicising this clip on the net before releasing their album on May 1. Check the comments, 'cause someone wrote out the lyrics in translation to English.
NLO (UFO) - I really like the animation used in this video
Gop Hip-Hop - I am perpetually amused by Eastern European hip hop. See also, Everything is Illuminated.

And some sort of comedy duo from Belarussian TV?
Sasha & Serozha

Kazakhs (singing in Russian)
Bangor - Aysulu - this video reminded me terribly of Boyz II Men - Water Runs Dry. Different lyrical matter, same video!


Then, I'm not really sure what to make of this. Paseka means apiary. As in lots of bees. I wish I could find a full clip of the song.
Liver - Paseka
Edit: Seems it's part of a movie. Some kind of very interesting movie, to be sure. Here's the full song.

Like they do on the Discovery Channel

Think that animals only mate when the season is right? Actually, they're just as kinky as us homo sapiens. Pandas watch porn, there are gay sheep on Brokeback Mountain, and even koalas are queer.

Rolling bridge!

Paddington Basin, London, UK, has the coolest bridge you ever saw.

Octodini

As I tell folks at the aquarium, octopuses have no bones. The only hard part in their body is their beak, and anything they can fit the beak through, well, the rest of them can squish through too.

poema

The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Critter culture

Museum of Non-Primate Art

Waiting for the bus

I wish curious things would happen when I wait for the bus. Usually I'm just cold.

Uzbekstreet boyz

Watching this Uzbek music video on YouTube, my main question is, 'are these kids old enought o drive?' Then, maybe that portion of Uzbek pop culture is all about junior high. Or monkeys.

Also, sometimes I am surprised when things are dubbed. Then when I think about it more, it doesn't seem surprising at all.

The weirdest fundraiser

The world never ceases to amaze. Seriously. Buy your own especially mounted celebrity... pubic hair.

Greeks

Archimedes: Give me a fulcrum and I will move the world.
Diogenes: Will it be better off in some other place?

Wesleyan-ing

Hey, Wes is blogging along.

Wesleyan in the news!

Different genders! Sharing dorm rooms! Parents briefly shocked and amazed! Read all about it!

Hip-hop

Sage Francis:
'God's not a woman, he's a big white guy in the sky and the deserts are reflections of his eyes. He doesn't cry for us, butwhen he does it's 'cause he's drunk. God's not a woman. He's a bitch.'

The same man responsible for Makeshift Patriot, the only hip hop song I've ever loved.

Useful Phrases

If you ever wondered how to say, "You can drink milk with a cup, but you can't cut wood with a cat," in Romanian, this is the webpage for you.

Spam

Selected spam subjects from an email address I've had since high school and use anytime some random site requires a valid address.
Variations on a theme:
1. yo Dude, your schlong is really small
2. Why so small weenie man?
3. Never thought so small prick exists.
4. [re:] Size of John Holmes of Rocco Sifredi in a few days
5. why your sausage is so small?? ;-)
6. why so small meat man?
7. yo sir, your member is really small
8. [re:] size of your sausage!
9. Girls prefer real things, not toothpicks

You-neek You-nork

Ever wondered if other people have your name? This website will check, at least within the United States. It claims there is 1 of me, 67 and 108 of my roommates, 0 of my boyfriend, and 0 of a number of my friends who have unlikely or more recently imported last names, each of which generates 1,000-500,000 results with Google. My own last name gets 10,800 google results...

~~~Special ED~~~

It's one of the people I went to high school with that I liked: ~~~Special ED~~~

Magical Realism

Some discussion on what defines magical realism.

The Tree That Ate Roger Williams

Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island (eighth grade social studies, woot!), was buried near an apple tree. When a few of his descendents exhumed his grave, with a mind to put his remains somewhere more prominent, they found no bones. Instead, they found a portion of the apple tree's root, which followed where Roger's spine had been, and split in two for his legs.

Kyoto Emissions

It's the official UN data for greenhouse gas.

Chinese Cave Dwellings

70 million Chinese live in caves.

Redheaded Runaway

Here's another friend of mine.

Steller's Jay

They're the cheeky blue birdies you've seen around, the ones who make raucous screeches, and steal your food.

Mother Earth News

The original guide to living wisely.

I only found it because I was looking up buttermilk.

Marine Conservation

"The world would be a poorer place if we lost the way of life that fishing and the ocean have provided us and our coastal communities. Whether it is in a remote Eskimo or Aleut village in Alaska, the working waterfront of towns like Kodiak or Sitka, or the fishing ports in New England, there is a richness to our history and culture that cannot be replaced."

David Benton, head of the Marine Conservation Alliance, interview with Grist

Another Green Link

It's the Institue for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment! And with a scientific analysis, they recommend plastic over paper bags.

Solar Kismet

Here's an interesting blog, if I become the sort to reads blogs of people I don't know.

Go green, young man

It's the New American Dream, with a few simple steps you can take to turn the tide and help save the planet. Plus, here's a more exhaustive list.

Alaskans sure it's getting warmer

It's an Anchorage Daily News story on a statewide survey about opinions of global warming. A much higher percentage of Alaskans than the natural average believe it's true, most likely because the effects are more obvious. Still, there's a somewhat unique approach to it: "On the bright side, 73 percent think temperatures will be more comfortable, and 60 percent expect tourism to grow because of warmer weather."

Names

Here's a another way to waste time -- www.placesnamed.com. If you want to know all the zip codes in Seattle, for instance, or more importantly where there are towns named Tiger, this is your place.

It is also, strangely, full of census data on name frequency. My last name is the 43,063rd most popular last name (surname) in the United States, my first name the 88th most popular female first name. For fun, try and guess the most popular male and female first names. It's much more staid and English than you'd think. Give up? XX & XY.

Wooden Boats

There's nice ones, and less nice ones...

Angel's Landing

I climbed this crazy crazy trail in Zion National Park, in Utah.

Global Voices

The World is speaking, for instance, in Ukraine. Are you listening?

counterpoint

And from Akvarium, another side of the same argument Gazmanov is making

politics of pop

Oleg Gazmanov seems more and more interesting, kind of like Zhirinovsky...
Gazmanov - Novaya Zarya

Turns out that youtube is acquiring a slavic element

You can also see Diskoteka Avaria, who are bigger fans of american culture
Ostrie Ataki
HHHiRNR

or some more realistically (?) portrayed youth


or if you don't mind their language, some interesting recombinations of Leningrad
Karlsson na Dacha
Anime??

and it turns out the guy in Brat is the poslednii geroi Kino had in mind...

and there's a bit of uploaded Kino footage

Green Theme Zine

To go with green drinks, let me also give a shout out for Grist Magazine. I know a girl who works there, but stupidly never looked up the publication for the first, oh, ten months of our acquaintance. Now that I've seen it, it turns out to be super awesome.

Grist - "it's gloom and doom with a sense of humor. So laugh now -- or the planet gets it."

Green drinks

On Tuesday night I went to a get together event for the green-minded, a schmooze and booze for sustainable environmentalist types. It didn't get me a job, but it got me some free wine, and some quality time at the Aquarium.

ferocious beasties

In New Jersey, a cat chased a black bear up a tree. There's a picture, so you know it's true.

Butter sculptures

Apparently, as part of the Minnesota State Fair, they choose a Dairy Princess -- called Princess Kay of the Milky Way.

And then they carve her likeness out of a block of butter. My friend was there.

toons

If you're looking to see a digest of recent political cartoons, it's a quick way to see what the biggest news stories are lately...

Nikki Giovanni

Poetry by the insightful Ms. Giovanni

STP Pix

All the pictures you could ever need of the event.

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone

Too much biking could make your knees unhappy, especially if your bike is not well adjusted, or if you perhaps have six gears and go over big hills anyway. So, what type of pain is it? Did you fall? Should you readjust your bike? Learn how to ride better? I'm going with the last option, because I'm not getting more gears any time soon.

more Marmots

As it turns out, they eat marmots in Mongolia and China, and the marmots carry bubonic plague (Black Plague, anyone?), so they have to be careful which ones they eat. And then there's lots of other marmot lore.

Marmots

Marmots live in the mountains, and eat flowers. And they whistle. How great a life is that?

Os Mutantes

In three weeks, some crazy Brazilians are coming to play in Seattle. Beatles-and-LSD-influenced-only-reunion-since-1973 crazy.

Handlebar tape

If you, like me, start out clueless, here's how to re-wrap your handlebars. If you're super ambitious, do it harlequin style!


(and this is how not to get saddle sores)

Baaba Maal

Last night I saw a show by Senegalese musician Baaba Maal. It was a pretty amazing show. Amazing music. Amazing dancing. Standoffs between the drummers and the dancers. Basically, Baaba Maal is amazing.

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti

It was 1959 at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Dr. Milton Rokeach had three patients, who all thought they were Christ. So he started them on a regimen of group therapy together, and eventually wrote a book about it. The book has been reviewed, excerpted, required as reading for psychologists, and taken as a parable for current world politics; the Ypsilanti State Hospital has apparently been turned over to be a research facility for Toyota.

Blogging on Russian pop music

Google blogsearching for 'Russian "pop music"' turns up the following random general, webness; some of it more relevant to the Ukraine.

Hapag-Lloyd

I see container ships saying Hapag-Lloyd at work all the time, so I looked them up. It's a big German company, originally Hapag and Lloyd, which merged and have successively taken over various other companies, most recently Canada Pacific. And they also run a cruise line and an airline in Germany.

WHO on Chernobyl

Twenty years later, if you didn't get thyroid cancer and aren't suffering long-term from the mental trauma of evacuations, you'll probably be okay. That's what WHO says, anyway.

I have no idea what you're talking about...

...so here's a bunny with a pancake on its head.

Oh, Those Rascally Russians

and their complete and utter lack of regard for Western copyright laws

middle-aged Mother Earth

"In order to put geologic time in a framework we can understand, let us divide the earth's age by 100 million. Then we can consider that Mother Earth is forty-six year old, a middle-aged lady in whose past we have a strong and intimate interest."
pg. 26, Fundamentals of Oceanography, 2nd Ed., 1996, Duxbury & Duxbury, Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, IA