Shoplifters of the World

Seems Hana Ali, the daughter of Muhammad who also wrote a book about her father, has been arrested on charges of shoplifting. The only reason I find it interesting is that I worked with her at a realtor's office for a few months. As far as I know she never stole any supplies. I'm even more surprised to learn that she's written a book as she would write some excrutiatingly boring poetry in her free time.

Shannon Doherty: Our secret weapon

According to a former Israeli prime minister, the best way to bring a change in Iran's government is... to flood them with crappy Fox TV shows. I guess he isn't a fan of Dawson or Buffy. God bless satellite TV, Aaron Spelling and capitalism.

Citing the hundreds of thousands of satellite television dishes in Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu told the House Government Reform Committee that the United States could incite a revolution against the conservative Iranian clergy through the use of such Fox Broadcasting staples as "Melrose Place" and "Beverly Hills 90210" -- both of which feature beautiful young people in varying states of undress, living, glamorous, materialistic lives and engaging in promiscuous sex.

"This is pretty subversive stuff," Netanyahu told the committee. "The kids of Iran would want the nice clothes they see on those shows. They would want the swimming pools and fancy lifestyles."

Don't Whiz on the Electric Fence

Another excellent FARK photochop. The theme is failed boardgames.

What's My Name?

Behind the Name has a huge variety of names and their meanings and origins, although the individual entries don't have much info. Mine means noble and generous, naturally. (via gammatron)

North versus South

What happens when two of California's largest industries, the entertainment industry based in Hollywood and the tech industry based in Silicon Valley fight for control of Congress? This long and at times interesting article summarizes the ongoing battles between the people that will decide what you see and the people that will decide how you see it.

What's in my food?

The online Nutritional Analysis Tool can tell you. For example, I've just eaten 15 pounds of watermelon (I was hungry). That accounted for 75.08% of my daily Caloric needs based on a 2900 a day Calorie diet. The results have all sorts of information on vitamins, minerals and such. There's also a tool to estimate how much energy you use in a day.

Desert Soundtrack

The Queens of the Stone Age are back with a new album and are profiled in a feature in the LAWeekly where they talk about their previous band Kyuss, touring and making music since then, and the desert. You know, all the shit you've always wished you could do.

I have enchanting memories, where you're driving toward where they're playing in the middle of the desert, and you're totally lost, but you see some car parked by the side of the road lookin' like it's been abandoned by some drunken kid. And you see someone else stumbling out in the darkness. So you know you're getting close. And then seeing a little glow, a single halogen light on a pole -- just one light, so the generator wouldn't blow out. And then actually getting there, and seeing Kyuss playing, surrounded by a few hundred kids slamming in the sand in the middle of the night, with the wind whipping sand around everywhere. And then the sound of it, like you're listening to Kyuss in a tornado, and you could only see this cacophony of bodies, of fucked-up kids, slamming into each other. It was like stumbling on the Plains Indians doing a war dance.