mcdspot

What’s all this hoopla about a superb owl? I don’t get it.

Anyway, apparently there were some great commercials and movie trailers on tv last night. Here are all of the trailers in one spot.

Letters of Note is one of my favorite new websites, although I cannot view it at work because I wouldn’t get anything done. Simply put, it’s a collection of rare, important, or otherwise culturally relevant letters, with transcriptions. For starters, check out this letter from Kurt Vonnegut to his family, written from a repatriation camp after he was rescued from the nazis in 1945.

This strange device is a Roman army precursor to the Swiss Army knife. Not bad, for 200 A.D.

On a related note, see these photos of an ancient aqueduct recently found beneath Rome.

In the wake of the Saints’ Superbowl win last night, perhaps it’s appropriate to consider this timeline showing the evolution of sports.

Vans and the places they were.

As weird as they may sound, I’m a fan of the Spivak pronouns.

Check out these favorite photos from the U.S. National Archives

The Crawford Hiking-Survival Staff has just enough crazy to get the job done. It combines a walking stick with a knife, lance, and blowgun.

Charles Vance Millar is one of my new heroes. Sort of.

According to a controversial and fascinating new study, animals have a moral code that encourages cooperation and reduces unnecessary fighting. Isn’t that the point of human morality as well?

A recent photo essay appeared which highlights the findings on this study. Three cheetahs were spotted playing with a baby antelope, presumably because they weren’t hungry.

Interesting article on the mysterious Antikythera mechanism, a “device so astonishing that its discovery is like finding a functional Buick in medieval Europe.”

Palin’s hand-written notes from the Tea Party convention:

Energy
Budget cuts
Tax
Lift America’s Spirit

And so the saga continues. via darkpony.

Ever wondered what a spider’s silk spigots look like under an electron microscope? Well, now you can put your mind at ease.

via the Onion, of course.

Good lord.

You’d better sit down, folks.

Article 31 of the Iraqi Constitution, drafted by your right-wing Bushies in 2005 and ratified by the Iraqi people, includes state-guaranteed (single payer) healthcare for life for every Iraqi citizen.

Article 31 reads:

“First: Every citizen has the right to health care. The State shall maintain public health and provide the means of prevention and treatment by building different types of hospitals and health institutions.

Second: Individuals and entities have the right to build hospitals, clinics,or private health care centers under the supervision of the State, and this shall be regulated by law.”

There are other health care guarantees, including special provisions for children, the elderly, and the handicapped elsewhere in the 43-page document.

predatory equity.

by Paco Pomet. via jsh.

How to catch an iPhone thief. It may help if you’re OCD or a major internet whiz.

It looks like Alabama’s Governor Riley has found a new head of the “Task Force on Illegal Gambling” after the former head was busted gambling at a legal Indian casino in Mississippi. This whole business is so ridiculous. Ambrose Bierce said it best:

“The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.”

About eight percent of human genetic material comes from a virus and not from our ancestors, according to researchers in Japan and the U.S.

The implications of this fact could be staggering. What if the human ethical impulse was a viral byproduct?