Exploding Aardvark

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WE’RE 64.36 PERCENT OBSCURE

The Aardvark That Exploded is 35.64 percent mainstream this week. I blame the Beatles, who somehow are over 100 percent mainstream.
Last.fm-Mainstream-O-Meter (via petdance)

THE MOTHS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM

Famed US military mad-scientist bureau DARPA (the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency) is engaged in an effort to grow/build cyborg moths for use as spies. No, really.
The program is called Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, or HI-MEMS. In it, the arguably over-caffeined DARPA boffins aim to construct a tiny lepidopterine infiltration borg by growing a living […]

LITTLE DIFFERENCES

Men Worry More About Penile Size Than Women, Says 60-year-old Research Review
Well, duh. We don’t even have penises.

31 MAY

1819: Walt Whitman is born [leaves/grass]

1946: Rainer Werner Fassbinder is born

1957: American playwright Arthur Miller is convicted of contempt of Congress after refusing to reveal the names of alleged Communist writers [virtual trial]

1973: Despite Henry Kissinger’s protests, the US Senate votes to cut off funds for the bombing of Cambodia

1995: Senator Bob Dole condemns the […]

THE ZVERSTVO

The Zverstvo, “Omar Hayam” (YouTube)
Here’s the band site. Or go and download an entire album called Can’t Eat This Song. I know I did! (Many thanks to Fifth Column for mentioning this band and sending me on a search.)

HEADLINE OF THE DAY

MySpace Outage Leaves Millions Friendless

DOMESTIC TENSION

Wafaa Bilal pokes his head out from behind a plexiglass screen to squeegee off dripping yellow paint and — splat! — a paintball hits inches from his face.
“They wait for me to let my guard down, like predators,” said Bilal, an Iraqi artist who has holed himself up in a Chicago gallery for a month […]

LOLCODE

Periodically, one goes through periods of deep metaphysical malaise. You look around at the world, wondering how such evil could flourish and such suffering could endure. You descend deeper into darkness, your faith in humanity waning, wondering why we were ever born into this cruel world. Then, suddenly, you realize that somebody has written a […]

THE NUMBING OF THE AMERICAN PALATE

“America is in the grips of a nefarious chicken-finger pandemic, in which a blandly tasty foodstuff has somehow become the de facto official nibble of our young.”
Don’t Point That Menu at My Child, Please (David Kamp in the New York Times)

30 MAY

1431: Joan of Arc is burned at the stake
1868: Decoration Day (later Memorial Day) is first celebrated at Arlington National Cemetery in the United States
1908: Mel Blanc is born
1909: Benny Goodman is born [vids: why sunrise dingdong]
1937: Ten demonstrators are shot and killed by Chicago police during the Memorial Day Massacre
1990: Midnight Oil set up […]