In more Bun B appearance updates: no offense to main mang (I don't have a death wish), but however-few-years-old MC Rye Rye shows everyone up on the Homeland Security Remixes with that Charm City...uh...charm. If the next gen of (female) MCs is this sick already...Lawdamercy! Maybe a change is gon come. African Boy also gets honorable mention for the best "cooking up white"-involving rhyme I've heard in ages. Fufu, anyone?

Look like Mike Love (who I hear cold as hell) done took the "King of New York" and mashed him up with the King of Afrobeat. Some cuts are more definitely more inspired than others ("Sweet" is my heat) but it goes without saying that hopefully more folks will take an interest in the music of Mr. Kuti after hearing this.

Officially taking the word to the motherland, the half of Blackstar NOT currently starring in dope revisionist Fats Waller docs just shot his new video in Lagos. Though dude comes off kinda self-righteous/colonial in this soundbite discussing the song, the glorious beat (Just Blaze + the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy) and video (the SHRINE!) are excellent. Hopefully Kwe will stay true to his word, not only spreading the gospel over there but reversing the trans-Atlantic trade, if you get my drift. I mean, with an actual cultural and material exchange, who know what can come to fruition?

Odabo.

Charles Fishman explores America's obsession with bottled water in his feature length article in Fast Company. And while the EPA has just deemed New York tap water so pure that it requires no filtration, San Francisco, which has already been able to tout that claim for a while now, will no longer be allowed to buy bottled water for it's city employees under a new order by Mayor Newsom. So with countless people still paying more for their bottled water than gasoline, you might be interested to know some of the true costs.

Scientists are just one step away from unlocking the secret to producing golden eggs.

Does water beat wind? or is it sand?
(It's not sand. The answer is robots. Robots beat everything.)

Making fun of both the pharmaceutical industry and the prison industrial complex?? Get your Incarcerex today.

While I don't think Design can "solve the problems of the world's poor," no matter how savvy, I gotta salute folks like those mentioned in this article from the NY Times for using their intelligence and resources for the greater good. If these forward-thinking solutions to serious-yet-mundane problems can actually be distributed amongst and used by the people who need them (a large hurdle in its own right), their impact would be huge in just allowing recipients to accomplish things hitherto unimaginable due to lack of time and/or resources. I guess we shall see.

Better effort?

Just the name – Disease Mongering Engine – sells me pretty quickly. This site actually has some more sobering content too though. Antibacterial soap can be dangerous? As if I didn't already have enough reasons to distrust 'the man'...

On a more upbeat note though, here's a little DIY tutorial for how to take infrared pics with your digicam.

Yay for breastesses.

It might be more interesting if they had animations of our representatives and you could watch them run around with oversized heads and thought balloons, but this is still something I can appreciate.

We Feel Fine. Kind of has a poetic feel with all the horrible grammar.

I like slow. But SlowMail?

Okay, it's clear that the only part of this site being updated regularly still is the Crate now. But it's not because we don't love posting, it's just that (-insert plausible excuse-).

But just so we don't start growing mold on our faces, here are a couple little personal favorites of late.

While it may not be a MySpace killer, anything that starts toying with territory to crash the gates, I'm all in favor of. Who knows whether this will succeed or fail. I will admit that really, in the end, I just want MySpace to die.

If you are too busy to actually exercise like normal people, then you need the ROM. First you need $14,615. But it will be worth it. This site is incredible for a variety of reasons, but I think I particularly like it for not being afraid to take on the so-called 'experts' and their cursed logic. If you read www.WhyIsItSoExpensive.com, you will realize that combating the 'experts' is one of the main reasons they have to charge so much. Damn those 'experts' I say.

Weird Billboard time lapse soundthingamajig.

And here's a little plug for a movement to urge advertisers to pay to help save the animals, not just exploit them.

This.

Raise your kids skating, folks.

This post has nothing to do with MLK Jr., peace, or tolerance. I can ramble on about that stuff plenty, but crawling the web is such a free-form activity, that I don't feel right restricting it sometimes. You could even call it organic. I mean, you probably won't, but the point is, I would.

So I'm probably the furthest thing from a fashion whore, and not a huge lover or fashion mags even, but the artsy fartsy ish gets me sometimes - particularly when there are hot women involved.

This is the closest I'll get to politics today. And it's just some cheap shots at Condi. Not that I usually go for this sort of humor, but she's one of the few people I would ever call a cunt-face, so it seems acceptable - just this one time.

Clean Graffiti. This, I love. Absolutely, I love it.

I'm not really sure if this is making a statement against Google, but it involves the notion of cannibalization, so it gets an automatic green light. If you feel like spicing up your Googling experience and winning prizes while you search, check out the intriguingly gimmicky Blingo.

That is all.

U.S.-backed mass murder and former Chilean dictator Augustuo Pinochet died yesterday at age 91. And I hope he burns is hell.

The Dantrification of this Michael Richards mess. Hits the nail right on the head.

The Snowman gets hot and bothered and storms out the studio after Monie Love asks him to consider the current condition of Hiphop given the history of the culture. Maybe him and Weezy need to have that "chill coffee" Baby's baby rapped about, cuz they seeming mighty salty right now.

And speaking of "The Temple" (no KRS), welcome to the Kingdom Come Roundtable. Lord knows I really don't give a make-love cuz it ain't like I've contributed to the Sean Carter Floss Fund since them Reasonable Doubt times, but, for the sake of argument, tadow.

Skateboard Dogsled P. Dis bama done lost his natural mind. Ghostface you are not, dear sir.

Didja hear? Didja hear? This guy is putting out an album. So much for promotion.

Wow. I'd have never guessed that the immigration debate would shift to combating "Eurotrash" graf artists, boosting their "Euro-reps". Without the "New York cred" of a spun Lady Pink quote, this porqueria would be pure comedy. Quality of Life cops should arrest their coworkers.

And, lastly, for anyone who hasn't heard, the tour bus carrying The Coup, Mr. Lif, and their associates had a major accident in which several riders were injured and all of their belongings on-board were damaged or destroyed. If you can, help em out. Read Boots' account of the crash and link to the Paypal collection here.

Supposing I don't blog again for a minute, all y'all out there be healthy and happy and start those New Year's resolutions a lil' early (btw: Thank GOD for the DC Smoking Ban!!!). One.