Independence Day Weekend Open Mic
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It's another one of those 2-day holiday weekends.

Sewing The Flag
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At Shorpy: Stars and Stripes 1915.

From what I can tell, it's fake. Those ladies aren't even using thread or needles.

This would be a good one to colorize.

Ads On Kindle?
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Patent 20090171751, granted July 2, 2009 to three Amazon.com employees: ON-DEMAND GENERATING E-BOOK CONTENT WITH ADVERTISING.

A system and a method of incorporating advertisements in on-demand printed content are disclosed. In response to receiving a request from a consumer for on-demand printed content, an advertisement is selected. The selected advertisement is included within the requested content. Thereafter, and further responsive to the request, an on-demand printed copy of the requested content, included the selected advertisement, is printed.

Lovely. But I'm sure they would never actually do such a thing.

(Thanks Kashmarek)

New Sign To Honor Xenu
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This is pretty exciting news: Internationally Known Scientology Sign Gets Makeover.

Los Angeles - More than a thousand Scientologists, their friends and families cheered the lighting of a new state-of-the-art LED sign Friday night atop the Scientology complex on the corner of L. Ron Hubbard Way and Sunset Boulevard.

The updated landmark is three times the size of the previous Scientology sign, which had been in place since the late '70s and is recognized the world over. The new sign is 5.2 tons, 84 feet long, 16 feet tall and can be seen for miles - from several Hollywood and Los Angeles freeways, and indeed by aircraft from far above.

Watch a video by XenuSmurf.

It's a good thing they don't have to pay taxes. That sign was probably pretty expensive.

Related Hollywood news: Film crew signs 'no questions' TomKat Scientology contracts.

Katie Holmes is about to start filming her new movie, Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, but some questions from the crew will not be allowed. The Batman Begins actor will begin filming on the closed Docklands set this week, as she, husband Tom Cruise and daughter Suri continue to explore Melbourne's sights and stores.

One film source from the set said that each crew member had signed agreements saying they would not ask the superstar about her religion, Scientology...

The church claims Earth is a prison planet, home to the souls of millions of inter-galactic beings murdered by an evil alien overlord named Xenu.

CompuServe RIP
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I figured CompuServe was long gone. But no... CompuServe Requiem.

The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, was shut down by its current owner, AOL this past week. The service, which provided its users addresses such as 73402,3893, was the first major online service although the number of users has dwindled in recent years. At its height, the service boasted about having over half a million users simultaneously on line.

And one of them was me!

Hot Dog!
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Today is the 4th of July, and that means hot dogs. Two major hot-dog stories are in the news today:

Arch rivals square off at Nathan's hot dog-eating weigh-in

This year's frank fight is a grudge match between Chestnut and six-time Coney champ Takeru Kobayashi of Japan. "It's going to be a good battle this year," said Kobayashi, 31, through an interpreter. "I'm going to bring the belt back."

The two men, dubbed "eating legends" by organizers, have split the past four stomach-stuffin' contests on the Boardwalk. Now it's time to pass the mustard and settle the score.

Elephants easily outeat humans in contest

In the fight of pachyderms vs. people - the pachyderms now have the upper trunk. Three circus elephants scored a decisive victory over three human competitive eaters at a cross-species eating contest Friday, chomping down on 505 hot dog buns in six minutes. The humans forced down only 143 buns in the bout at Brooklyn's Coney Island.

WND Birthday Greetings
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At World Nut Daily: Send Obama an eligibility birthday greeting.

Would you like to send Barack Obama a birthday message this year? Now's your chance.

Though he has never released a long-form birth certificate, Obama claims to have been born Aug. 4, 1961, in an unnamed Honolulu hospital that has yet to take credit for the historic birth of the baby who would become America's first black president.

WND's SuperStore has designed and printed postcards for the occasion. The front of the card raises the question: "Where's the birth certificate?" The back is open for your personalized greetings.

And there you have it, folks. Why is there a need to mention his race? This whole birth certificate crusade is because they don't like the idea of a black president. It's been obvious all along, but this article pretty much seals the deal.

A Full Quiver
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The movement that's sweeping the nation: Quiverfull

Quiverfull is a movement among conservative evangelical Christian couples chiefly in the United States, but with some adherents in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, and elsewhere.

Its viewpoint is to receive children eagerly as blessings from God, eschewing all forms of birth control, including natural family planning and sterilization. Someone of this persuasion might call themselves a "quiver full", "full quiver", "quiverfull-minded", or simply "QF" Christian. Some might refer to the Quiverfull position as Providentialism, while the popular press has recently referred to the movement as a manifestation of natalism.

The movement and its corpus of literature have grown steadily since its inception. Its adherents most likely number in the "thousands to low tens of thousands". It began to receive significant attention in the U.S. national press in 2004.

 Why? Because of one sentence written in an old book:

"Be fruitful and multiply"

Musical Test For Middle Age
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This is from Eric Zorn: Take the musical test -- when did you get old?

Reader Mike Carniello sent me a list several years ago of top summer songs of each year going back. He maintained that by "using this list, you can pinpoint exactly when middle age kicked in" by identifying the first song on the list for which you can't kind of hum the melody.

Here's the list, starting from 1964:

• August 1964 "A Hard Day's Night" The Beatles
• August 1965 "I Got You Babe" Sonny & Cher
• August 1966 "Summer in the City" The Lovin' Spoonful
• August 1967 "Light My Fire" The Doors
• August 1968 "People Got to Be Free" The Rascals
• August 1969 "In the Year 2525" Zager and Evans
• August 1970 "(They Long to Be) Close to You" The Carpenters
• August 1971 "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" Bee Gees
• August 1972 "Alone Again (Naturally)" Gilbert O' Sullivan
• August 1973 "The Morning After" Maureen McGovern
• August 1974 "(You're) Having My Baby" Paul Anka with Odia Coates
• August 1975 "Jive Talkin'" the Bee Gees
• August 1976 "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" Elton John & Kiki Dee
• August 1977 "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" Andy Gibb
• August 1978 "Miss You" Rolling Stones
• August 1979 "My Sharona" the Knack
• August 1980 "Magic" Olivia Newton-John
• August 1981 "Jessie's Girl" Rick Springfield
• August 1982 "Eye Of The Tiger" Survivor
• August 1983 "Every Breath You Take" the Police
• August 1984 "Ghostbusters" Ray Parker Jr.
• August 1985 "The Power of Love" Huey Lewis & the News
• August 1986 "Papa Don't Preach" Madonna
• August 1987 "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" U2
• August 1988 "Roll With It" Steve Winwood
• August 1989 "Right Here Waiting" Richard Marx
• August 1990 "Vision of Love" Mariah Carey
• August 1991 "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" Bryan Adams
• August 1992 "Baby Got Back" Sir Mix-A-Lot
• August 1993 "(I Can't Help) Falling in Love With You UB40
• August 1994 "Stay (I Missed You)" Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories
• August 1995 "Waterfalls" TLC
• August 1996 "Macarena" Los Del Rio
• August 1997 "I'll Be Missing You" Puff Daddy & Faith Evans
• August 1998 "The Boy Is Mine" Brandy & Monica
• August 1999 "Genie in a Bottle" Christina Aguilera
• August 2000 "It's Gonna Be Me" 'N Sync
• August 2001 "Bootylicious" Destiny's Child
• August 2002 "Hot In Herre" Nelly
• August 2003 "Crazy In Love Beyonce featuring Jay-Z
• August 2004 "Confessions Part II" Usher
• August 2005 "We Belong Together" Mariah Carey
• August 2006 "Promiscuous" Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland
• August 2007 "Big Girls Don't Cry" Fergie
• August 2008 "Leavin'" Jesse McCartney

For me, it's 1987, when I was 35. I know a few after that, but not many.

CD Baby Downloads
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I recently sent an email to CD Baby:

I really, really, really want to support CD Baby and the artists. But, at least half the time, an album I want to buy is not available as a download. So I end up buying it from amazon -- where it's almost always less expensive anyway (and yes, I realize the artist gets practically nothing from amazon). Is there anything you can do to convince the artists to make downloads available? In the past six months, you lost at least 10 sales from me because of this. Multiply that by your customer base, and it might be some real money.

Amy replied:

I am sorry. I understand what you mean, but we really do leave it up to our artists.

We distribute our artists to amazon, so if you are seeing them for sale there, and not on our site, that probably means they DON'T use us for digital distribution because they are getting it from another company, which is likely why they chose not to have us sell their MP3.

It is a shame that everyone doesn't choose to AT LEAST sell their MP3 on our site... but we are taking steps to entice artists to want to use us for digital sales. In a month, we will offer single song downloads, so people can buy just certain songs off of albums. That will be pretty awesome.

At any rate, it is all case by case and it is all up to the artists and although we would LOVE to carry EVERY one of our artists digitally, it is truly up to them! Thanks for trying to support us when you can, we really appreciate it!

But there was one that I couldn't find anywhere else, so I had to buy the CD from CD Baby: The New Mules, Pride of America. It arrived today, and it's great. With a patriotic cover like that, it will be good one to listen to on the way to the jam up at Mt. Lemmon tomorrow -- where it will be 72 degrees!

It's amazing how quickly things have changed for me. Two years ago, I thought nothing of buying an actual CD. Now, it just seems like a waste of paper, plastic, gas, and time (to rip the songs).

Palin Announces Forthcoming Announcement
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I'd like to announce that Sarah Palin announced that a Palin Announcement is Forthcoming.

The office of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin issued a press release today saying she will make an announcement from her home in Wasilla today at 11:00 a.m. local time (3:00 p.m. ET). There was no indication as to the topic of the announcement.

I think she'll announce that she's been having an affair with Joe The Plumber.

Pig Induced Riot
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What century is this again? Thrown pig leads to religious riots in India.

Three people have been killed in religious rioting in southern India between Muslims and Hindus, police said Friday.

Widespread violence broke out in Mysore Thursday after somebody threw a dead pig into the compound of an under-construction mosque, city police commissioner Sunil Agarwal told CNN.

More than a dozen people were injured in the clashes, he said. Police fired tear gas and used bamboo sticks to break up the rioting, according to Agarwal.

Shown here is a dead pig being put to good use, instead of being wasted on a  religious riot.

(Thanks Blayne)

Glass Balcony
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Photos of the Terrifying view from glass box balcony jutting out from skyscraper's 103rd floor.

Not content with having the tallest building in America, the owners of Sears Tower in Chicago have installed four glass box viewing platforms which stick out of the building 103 floors up.

The balconies are suspended 1,353 feet in the air and jut out four feet from the building's Skydeck. Designers say the platforms - collectively dubbed The Ledge - have been purposely designed to make visitors feel as they are floating above the city.

Gary Coleman’s Wife
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This little former actor can't stay out of the news: Wife of actor Gary Coleman arrested in Utah.

Police say the wife of actor Gary Coleman was booked into jail after an argument at the couple's Utah County home.

Shannon Price was arrested Wednesday and held for about two hours before posting $1,205 bail. Utah County Jail records show the 23-year-old Price was booked for investigation of domestic violence, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. It's unclear whether Price has an attorney.

An arrest affidavit says police were called to the home after Price allegedly locked Coleman out during an argument and was yelling obscenities out the window, had thrown items around the home and upended furniture.

Here they are during happier times:

Banjo Dino
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Thanks to the four people who shared this one with me: Was Banjo the most fearsome hunting dinosaur ever?

Researchers have revealed the discovery of its bones as well as two other new species of dinosaurs that roamed the huge continent, when it was joined to the rest of Asia, millions of years ago.

However, he might have been less impressed by the name 'Banjo' conferred on him by scientists who found his bones in the Outback.

Nicknamed Banjo, Matilda and Clancy the large dinosaurs are the first unearthed in Australia since 1981 and date back 98million years to the mid-Cretaceous period.

Nice claws.