"Insensitivity" Near Ground Zero
One by one, the arguments against the proposed Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero have collapsed. A "13-story mosque"? No such plan. "At Ground Zero"? Wrong again. The imam's radical politics? A myth. His shadowy jihadist financiers? Imagined. His failure to denounce terrorism? Debunked. The "angry battle" he's "stoking"? Please. The guy isn't even returning phone calls. The anger and stoking have come from the other side.</p>So the mosque's opponents have fallen back on one last argument: sensitivity.
via Is a mosque near Ground Zero "insensitive"? - By William Saletan - Slate Magazine.
'Lost' Sells Off Their Set
Dharma Volkswagen van: $47,500
Daniel Faraday's journal with Jughead notes and reminder about Desmond Hume being his Constant: $27,500
The Frozen Donkey Wheel: $25,000
Hurley's Camaro: $24,000
A copy of the pilot script, signed by J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof: $15,000
The fail-safe key turned by Desmond Hume: $11,000
The controversial squirrel baby could have been yours' for a mere $2,750. (Profiles in History)
Jack's bloody outfit from the final scene: $10,000
Large piece of the fuselage: $9,000
Charlie Pace's Drive Shaft ring: $9,000
John Locke's suicide letter to Jack: $9,000
Kate's toy airplane: $6,500
Benjamin Linus's fake money and passports: $5,000
Hurley's notebook with his rewrite of the "Empire Strikes Back": $4,250
Sawyer's copy of "Watership Down": $3,300
Claire's Squirrel Baby: $2,750 (perhaps it didn't go for more due to the Squirrel Baby controversy?)
Rousseau's music box: $1,800
The fact that you now can't afford your monthly mortgage payments because you spent so much money on "Lost" auction stuff?: Priceless.
Radio Krayany Facebook Page
Didn't know getting 25 people to follow your radio thing was such a hassle. Finally got a name reserved: http://www.facebook.com/radio.krayany. Nice little hobby station is growing like puyopuyo.
Yanukovych Preps Azarov for Ukrainian (Off-Air Leak)
No need to pretend to be Ukrainian if you can't speak it.
Transcript:
President Yanukovych [informal Russian]: Well, I’ll be addressing you...in the Ukrainian language. [switches to formal Ukrainian] Mykola Yanukovych [name, patronymic], I would like to hear you out...on the current situation — on issues of relevance.
via. Ukrainiana
Interview with Chatroulette's Founder, Andrey Ternovskiy
Seems like a smart kid. Some interesting excerpts from his letter:
"I was and still am a teenager myself, that is why I had a certain feeling of what other teenagers would want to see on the Internet."
"I have been coding since 11."
"I never thought that handling the heavy user load would be the most difficult part of my project."
"I’d love to share work with someone else [...] most of the interested people are located far away from me, because I live in Moscow. So I still have to do all the things myself."
"I actually think that it would be best to found Chatroulette as a U.S.-based company."
"I chose Germany for hosting, because it is in the middle between Russia and U.S.A. It is also at the center of various backbone European networks. I think this is a good place for hosting a project which connects people around the world with each other."
"I am not even sure what Chatroulette is now. Everyone finds his own way of using the site. Some think it is a game, others think it is a whole unknown world, others think it is a dating service."
Would love to take a look at his website and his other projects.
Keep up the good work, Andrey!
via New York Times
Interview with Julian Assange of Wikileaks
"The rest of the world's media is doing such a bad job that a little group of activists is able to release more of that type of information [classified documents] than the rest of the world press combined." - Julian Assange
via Don't Panic
Lego Still Remains My Favorite Toy
'8-bit trip' lego stop-motion video
via rymdreglage: the making of '8-bit trip' lego stop-motion video.
Let Bill Educate Palin
I'm not taking a position. It's just an interesting spiel.
Owners Can't Get Enough of Their Pets
They end up painting them to look exotica.
Meet the Tiger Dog: Chinese owners dye pets to look like wild animals | Mail Online.