(from axeon (#) on plastic)

Speaking of LOTR references, there was an article in the New Yorker (I think) basically asking, Did anyone else notice how LOTR rips off Wagner's Ring Cycle? The book, not the movie. The idea being, everyone acts as if LOTR sprang full-blown from Tolkien's head, when it has an obvious (and mostly ignored) precursor in Wagner's Ring.

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British writer Mark Simpson, credited by the New York Times for fathering the 'metrosexual' -- the moisturised, image-conscious male the global media has gone ga-ga for in recent months -- has apologised.

"I had no idea what I was starting," he said, speaking exclusively from his home in London, England. "If I'd known that metrosexuals would take over the world and make everyone wear fake tan and use glutinous hair care products I would have written about baseball instead."

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Insert Fun Facts Here....

As you sit back in your chair this Christmas:

(the biggest holiday of the Ancient Roman World called Saturnalia and the birth of the Persian Sun God Mithras was named the birth festival of Jesus by Pope Leo the Great in 885 A.D. December 25th was also the Feast of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun, a cult popular to Romans like Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Modern estimates based on the census records of Augustus calculate Jesus' actual birth in July although Christians had started to use the Saturnalia as the birthday feast as early as the 300's A.D.)

by your yule log:
(pagan German custom),

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1) Use "so" more often than "because" so that you emphasize that the process should be evidence then conclusion, not the other way around

2) People think you're smarter the slower you speak. So speak slowly.

3) Stop lisping.

Reading this article about how men are becoming metrosexual, getting exfoliations and caring more about their appearances.

Though, I do have to remind that at some point, the upper-class males would wear powdered wigs, suits, and socks that were effeminate, Victorian, etc.

But my bigger question is, are gender roles so flexible that females could be generally more masculine than males? That would be interesting.... men, get your lipstick ready..

Time really flies then you don't know what you're doing. (from slashdot)

So I googled "true love" and guess what I got? Russian woman.

Doesn't this scene looks similar to a screengrab from a floating level from the isometric perspective game Diablo.

Some bodies (pro pitcher) were not meant to move this way.

link

From Lucy and beyond

Steve Martin - How I Joined Mensa

I started with the phone book. Looking up "mensa" was not going to be easy, what with having to follow the strict alphabetizing rules that are so common nowadays. I prefer a softer, more fuzzy alphabetizing scheme, one that allows the mind to float free and "happen" upon the word. There is pride in that. The dictionary is a perfect example of over-alphabetization, with its harsh rules and every little words neatly in place. It almost makes me never want to eat again.

Book-A-Minute Classics

We here at Book-A-Minute Classics have come up with a solution. We've taken all kinds of great works of literature and boiled them down to their essence, extracting all the filler (and believe me, there's a lot of it sometimes). In just one minute, you can read entire books and learn everything your teachers will expect you to know.

The Last Page of the Internet

Introducing 50 Shekel... Jewish Hip-Hop (darkOS)

nomenclature for the wannabe cool - uhm... this is like what I speak w/ all the time. damn.

Amazon.com

This Shock Absorber sports bra was designed especially for Anna Kournikova, because only the ball should bounce. Available exclusively at Amazon.com, for a limited time.

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This girl.. yeah. Here, watch Vanilla Sky, print out These Lyrics to Radiohead's "Go To Sleep", and watch the video here.

(From moby's journal. Yes, I know moby's a tool, but some of his posts are good, like this one)

Moby Tour Diary Updates

"President Bush is supporting Arnold. But a lot of Republicans are not because he is actually quite liberal. Karl Rowe said if his father wasn't a Nazi, he wouldn't have any credibility with conservatives at all."
Bill Maher

"President Bush is on a 35-day vacation, and before he left he had his annual physical, and it turns out his cholesterol now is lower than his approval rating."
David Letterman

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Steve Job's Resume (From Tim Swanson's Blog)