Here's an insightful article about how liberal activists could inadvertently help to elect Sarah Palin as president, and how they can avoid doing so through community and union organization.

Lost world of fanged frogs and giant rats discovered in Papua New Guinea.

More than 40 previously unidentified species have just been discovered in a remote volcanic crater in Papua New Guinea. (Although I don't know if I like that wording, since I don't know that native peoples hadn't identified these species long ago.) The volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago, and this world has been thriving there ever since.

The Guardian has pictures, which include insects, amphibians and mammals. Included in the discovery were the Rodents of Unusual Size from The Princess Bride, who have no fear of humans. I want one.



EDIT: Also, an endangered spider has been named after David Bowie. Here is a very large photo of it. Arachnophobes beware.

This actually made me want to check my last.fm account, which has been tracking my computer-based music-listening since September 2004. My top 15 most-played songs since then (number of listens in brackets):

1. The Mountain Goats – This Year (98)
2. Josh Ritter – Girl in the War (91)
3. The Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter (86)
4. Josh Pyke – Middle of the Hill (81)
5. Jens Lekman – Black Cab (75)
5. The National – Mistaken for Strangers (75)
7. Sufjan Stevens – The Dress Looks Nice on You (72)
7. The Grates – Science Is Golden (72)
9. The Decemberists – The Crane Wife 3 (71)
10. Martha Wainwright – Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole (67)
11. The Dandy Warhols – Get Off (66)
11. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Make You Feel Better (66)
13. Flogging Molly – Within a Mile of Home (62)
13. PJ Harvey – Shame (62)
15. The Dandy Warhols – Bohemian Like You (60)
15. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Angel Dream No. 2 (60)

I should be ashamed at some of what's missing! But there you have it.

Top 10 from the last 12 months:

1. James – Sit Down (44)
2. Ben Folds – You Don't Know Me (featuring Regina Spektor) (34)
3. Dan Wilson – Breathless (33)
4. The Gaslight Anthem – The '59 Sound (31)
5. The Wildhearts – Vanilla Radio (30)
6. Deer Tick – Easy (29)
7. Rancid – Dominoes Fall (28)
8. The Gaslight Anthem – Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (23)
8. The Wildhearts – Sick of Drugs (23)
8. Ben Lee – Surrender (23)

This guy is my new hero.

This is from the Ukraine's Got Talent show. Kseniya Simonova recounts Germany's invasion of Ukraine using sand animation. It's amazing. Article.

As of yesterday, my current favourite song. Love love love love love it.



See also this great live version.

Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time was one giant boys' club. Vote for your favourite female musicians in the Feminist Hottest 100!!!

I resigned yesterday. :)



Find & post 5 songs beginning with the letter allocated to you by whoever did it last.

Comment if you would like me to assign you a letter.

astrovisionary gave me 'T':

(listed in the order they came to me)

This Year by The Mountain Goats - "I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me" = greatest lyric to sing over and over when I'm feeling like life is tough.

Tobacco Island by Flogging Molly - Sometimes I feel like this song is my favourite of FM's, but then I remember all their other awesome songs. Fun, hyperactive and contains a history lesson/political message. One of the best songs to experience live from possibly the best live band ever.

Thirty-Three by Smashing Pumpkins - I often cite this as my all-time Pumpkins favourite, even though there are so many others that also qualify. I'm not even really sure what it is about Thirty-Three that makes it stand out against the majority of their other beloved songs for me. I don't really know what it means, but I like the words. "The earth laughs beneath my heavy feet, at the blasphemy in my old jangly walk. Steeple guide me to my heart and home, the sun is out and up and down again." This live acoustic performance by Billy is not to be missed.

Note to Lindsey: "Forever you."

Tangerine by Led Zeppelin - After I got into Led Zeppelin when I was 12 or 13, I decided they were the best band ever and forever, and there was no point listening to any other music, because it couldn't possibly compare. So even though they don't take up a lot of my listening time these days, a lot of their songs still hold a lot of weight. Tangerine is a softer song from their softer third album that I used to play on guitar a lot, back when I took lessons. It's one of the few I haven't forgotten how to play. Another favourite among a sea of favourites.

Tear in Your Hand by Tori Amos - This was my favourite Tori song for a while, back in the day. It was a little more poppy than some of her stuff, and I loved the oddball lyrics. "I don't believe you're leaving 'cause me and Charles Manson like the same ice cream."

5 songs was not enough! And that's even leaving out everything starting with 'The'!

ronaldraygun wrote this.

As a result of Forestry Tasmania's win in a court appeal on a technicality, logging in the Wielangta Forest continues and Bob Brown has to pay about $240,000 in court costs or he'll be declared an undischarged bankrupt and will have to resign his Senate seat.

Australia can't afford to lose Bob Brown from the Senate. He's been putting the screws on successive federal governments for years now, his Senate term's not due to expire until 2014 and his leadership of the Australian Greens has ensured that issues like climate change, refugee treatment, peace and democratic reform have been heard in the Senate when the ALP and Coalition don't want to hear about them.

Donate now to help Bob cover the court costs. If you don't, Australia's democratic institutions will be the worse for it.

My own comment: I've always found Bob Brown to be a truly inspiring political leader, which is such a rarity. It would be a real shame for his time in the Senate to end because of this.

YouTube. Broadcasting hilarious things that previously only went on in private.



I came down with the flu last night, so I'm doing this instead of writing my paper.

Gotta love the youtubes.

I am just copying Lindsey's post, but this was too great not to.

Backstreet Boys (He really gets into it in the last minute or so!):


Queen:


I found a good blog about it: Does a Dancing Cockatoo Really Feel the Rhythm?:

"The researchers say Snowball had a decent feel for the beat. The cockatoo danced faster for fast beats and slower for slow beats. It was a little inconsistent, falling off the beat now and then, and a bit of a diva, sometimes not dancing at all. But overall the bird seemed to feel the rhythm—it danced more rhythmically than a human toddler, Patel says, but not as well as a human adult.

Just how Snowball got his groove is unclear. Some scientists believe that music has a biological basis, and maybe that extends, at least in part, to animals. But birdsong is not “music,” Nature says, and if Snowball and other birds truly understand rhythm, that would mean understanding tempo wouldn’t need to be connected to making music."

Does anyone read any good LJ communities which follow the moves of the Obama administration? I think active LJ communities are good for keeping up with what's going on and reading what people think, but I'm getting fed up with obama_2008, which is more like a fan club than a place for productive discussion. Post about Obama wearing a spiffy tie? 3847 comments*. Post about Obama supporting illegal wiretapping? 6 comments. The only thing I do like about that place is that it's drama-free; I never see any trolls or people being assholes. But I want people who are willing to get mad at the bad shit as well.

* May be an exaggerated figure.

I think twitter is the stupidest fucking thing in the world. But I joined it just to follow Steve Buscemi, on the recommendation of several of you guys.

Steve_Buscemi: let's abolish "motherfucker" and replace it with "zebrafucker". (Zebrafucker.com is still available). Together, we can make a difference.

I followed a bunch of other celebrities, thinking it might be interesting or socially insightful, but not really. It's all about Steve.

A mini-mixtape, in celebration of my five days off work:

NAIL, MEET COFFIN.



And for those that haven't really been playing along, let's put this into context:



Also: That train & station in the Visa commercial look like they're in Sydney.

A real-life resolution proposed by an Oklahoma legislator:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 1ST SESSION OF THE 52ND OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE:

THAT the Oklahoma House of Representative strongly opposes the invitation to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma to Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published statements on the theory of evolution and opinion about those who do not believe in the theory are contrary and offensive to the views and opinions of most citizens of Oklahoma.

Dear Oklahoma legislator:

Please see the first amendment of the United States Constitution. In other words, AW DIDDUMS.

Fuck You,
Katura

From NARAL:

Anti-choice ideologues are pushing a so-called "personhood" bill through the North Dakota legislature—a measure that would ban abortion and could lead to bans on birth control, stem-cell research, and in-vitro fertilization.

The anti-choice movement is starting in North Dakota because they think no one will notice. And when they're done there, they'll move along to the next state.

In fact, they're working to advance "personhood" measures in 16 states. Personhood USA, one of the organizations leading the fight, hopes their strategy leads to the end of the right to choose: "Establishing personhood closes what we call the 'hole' in Roe v. Wade."

Sign the petition to the governor of North Dakota telling him to veto any abortion-ban bill that comes to his desk.

Since I just finished reading Beloved by Toni Morrison, and wrote this one down, this seemed like a good time to share it:

"Today is always here. Tomorrow, never."

I also really like this passage from Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts:

( The world is run by one million evil men, ten million stupid men, and a hundred million cowards. )