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ICELANDIC ELVES

This town, a port on the outskirts of Reykjavik, prides itself on its unusually high elf population. Tourists are invited to tour the known elf locations, including a large rock whose reputation as an elf habitat meant that a nearby road was diverted some years ago so as not to disturb its unseen residents.
Elly Erlingsdottir, […]

SET PHASERS ON STUN

For years, the U.S. military has explored a new kind of firepower that is instantaneous, precise and almost inexhaustible: beams of electromagnetic energy. “Directed-energy” pulses can be throttled up or down depending on the situation, much like the phasers on Star Trek could be set to kill or merely stun.
Such weapons are now nearing fruition. […]

“TOKYO ROSE”

You�ve probably never heard of Iva Toguri and, if you have any association with the name “Orphan Ann” at all, it�s probably to the Little Orphan Annie comic strip. On the other hand, you probably have heard of �Tokyo Rose� and think you know all about her: the sultry, Japanese radio propagandist who taunted our […]

HEARING THE SOUNDS OF THE WORLD

The performance of Thousand-hand Bodhisattva dance performed by 21 hearing impaired girls and boys at the 2005 CCTV Spring Festival Gala caused a nationwide sensation. Shortly after the performance, I went to the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe (CDPPAT) in Beijing to learn more about them and found the true, the good and the […]

MEAT WITHOUT MURDER?

Experiments for NASA space missions have shown that small amounts of edible meat can be created in a lab. But the technology that could grow chicken nuggets without the chicken, on a large scale, may not be just a science fiction fantasy.
[…]
The paper even suggests that meat makers may one day sit next to bread […]

DUDE, UKULELE IS THE NEW GUITAR

More ukulele video than you can shake a stick at. (I don’t know what that means.)
Midnight Ukulele Disco

BREAKDOWN OF U.S. MILITARY FORCES

As we’re often told, 1 million men and women serve in the U.S. Army. So, why is it such a strain to keep a mere 150,000 in Iraq? What are the other 850,000 doing? Why can’t some of them be sent there, too? And if they really can’t be spared from their current tasks, what […]

MORE AUDIO LOVECRAFT

“Herbert West, Re-Animator,” as read by Jeffrey Combs, courtesy of Zombie Astronaut