Check this line-vector simulation of a hanging cloth, writ by JRC313.com. Pull it with the mouse (click-drag), let go, and watch it swing — cheap e-thrills via a “physics library” of code; here’s some screenshots:

the circus/charade that’s been the media coverage of events at virginia tech, I found it more than a little amusing that chimps appear to have evolved more than humans since we split from a common ancestor:
Chimps More Evolved Than Humans

while thirty shot dead is historic for USA, it’s just another bad day in Baghdad:
160 slaughtered in Baghdad car bomb avalanche

larger view

Even the military is starting to see the light or feel the warmth, as the case may be. I thought the most interesting point (made in the audio portion) of the story was retired Gen. Anthony Zinni’s comment that the real resource war isn’t going to be about hydrocarbons. It will be about hydrology or, in other words, water scarcity. He noted that many of the same places in the world that are rich in oil are poor in water.

NPR story | source for map

And while we’re on an evolutionary theme, from MC Hawking’s Crib, the sci-rap hit, “F*ck the Creationists” (NSFW):

In the 1960s, Dr. Peter Witt gave drugs to spiders and observed their effects on web building:

Using our NPR story “Listening to Northern Lights” (NPR Lost and Found Sound), Joel Halvorson of NASA Earth-Sun Museum Alliance made a video for the Minnesota Planetarium (for use in dome, thus the circular frame of the images):

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When solar flares hit the Earth’s magnetic field, the skies at both poles can light up with auroras. The particles also create very low frequency electromagnetic waves, a type of natural radio that can be picked up around the globe. Every year sound recordist Steve McGreevy heads north where the reception is best and points his receiver at the sky.Produced for Minnesota Planetarium and Space Discovery Center, by Joel Halvorson NASA Earth-Sun Museum Alliance (ESMA), as part of the International Polar Year (IPY). Aurora photography by Calvin Hall.Natural Radio recording by Stephen McGreevy. Radio story produced by Barrett Golding, for the series NPR Lost & Found Sound.

Gotta see if I can actually answer all of these for my locale:
http://www.kk.org/helpwanted/archives/cat_the_big_here.php

Some are obvious, others quite challenging…or I just forgot. Is Helena at 3800 feet? Some you don’t have to answer if you’re landlocked.