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Growing up in Manitowoc, WI, Sarah Kaufmann's favorite pastime was drawing. She didn't care what she was drawing, as long as she had a pencil or crayon and some paper. At the time, Kaufmann had no idea those countless hours spent filling sketchbooks would one day help her become a famous sculptor. Most sculptors use stone, metal or wood for their creations. Kaufmann, however, has chosen a medium much closer to the heart of Wisconsin. She's made quite a name for herself chipping away at cheese. Yes, Sarah "The Cheese Lady" Kaufmann is a cheese sculptor. Kaufmann was at Sam's...

The...er.... "barking spider" Hippo (Animation. No, it's clean, & hilarious!)

Iran's First Lady - Confirmed Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 11:49:20 am PDT "It’s confirmed. That really is Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s wife in that photograph I posted yesterday. Here are some more pictures of the First Bag Lady..."

LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers using a medical scanner have worked out why a Stradivarius violin sounds so good -- it is because of the remarkably even density of the wood. For the past 300 years, musicians and scientists have puzzled over the unparalleled quality of classical Cremonese violins made by Italian masters like Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu.

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl *** Stars: Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond, Stanley Tucci Rated: G How long: 1:41 In a time when it's commonplace for 9-year-old girls to get their nails done and wear thong underwear, it's easy for adults to shake their heads and say, "It wasn't like that when I was their age." Of course, being 9 hasn't really changed, but it's hard to see that through the sexualized, materialistic story told by Bratz and Barbies. "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" captures what it's like to be a real 9-year-old girl in a way that will take adults...

LeRoi Moore was injured today in an ATV accident on his farm outside Charlottesville, Virginia. LeRoi was immediately transported to the University of Virginia Health System for treatment where he remains in serious condition. Please join us all in wishing LeRoi a speedy and complete recovery. Beginning tomorrow in Charlotte, NC, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones saxophonist, Jeff Coffin, will be sitting in with Dave Matthews Band while LeRoi recovers. **Update** An Update on LeRoi 07/01/2008 LeRoi’s condition has been upgraded from serious to fair. We would like to thank everyone for the generous outpouring of well wishes and support...

Sprinters will be paid £10 per hour to run through the halls of one of the UKs most famous art galleries. Turner Prize-winner Martin Creed has the revealed the runners as his new work of art 'Work No. 850' at Tate Britain. The show will see a series of semi-pro athletes sprinting through a 86 metre long gallery every 30 seconds for eight hours per day for the next four months. Creed, 39, who won the 2001 Turner Prize for a piece called The Lights Going On And Off, said: “I like running. I like seeing people run and I...

Learn something new every day entry: this image and accompanying article (click the source link above) told me about Nea Kameni, which is in the Santorini lagoon and which had volcanic activity in 1950. I never knew the name of the island and that it was recently active until yesterday. Click for full-size. Here's a view taken from Santorini. And this image is just to put everything into proper perspective.

Officials of a north suburban park district say strong racial language in the musical "Ragtime" prompted their decision Wednesday to cancel the show two weeks before it was set to open. Those involved in the production -- set for Wilmette's Gillson Park -- say the decision means the loss of more than a month of hard work by a cast of nearly 40, and a misunderstanding of the show's message and realistic look at race relations in the past century. Wilmette Park District Executive Director Tom Grisamore said he made the decision to pull "Ragtime" 12 days after learning the...

Has anyone emailed you a link to that awesome footage of the ball girl making a stunning catch in foul territory during a minor league baseball game between the Fresno Grizzlies and the Tacoma Rainiers?    The video has been making the rounds on the Internet and likely fooling a lot of people, but what we are seeing is, in fact, staged. It is actually a viral video for Gatorade titled "Ball Girl" that was created by Chicago's Element 79 Partners and directed by Baker Smith of harvest, Santa Monica.    In a cluttered environment full of viral work that isn't really...

When I said I would give a pleasant surprise to Brityank, I meant I would like to paint a painting for him. Because I would like to thank him for his kindness towards me. Maybe he doesn’t think its anything, But I really care. Because I think I must keep my promise, and do my best, I will do it, and I’m free now. I hope Brityank feels free about this too. Because it is just a painting, and I just need an excuse to exercise my drawing skills. I am so lazy sometimes you know, I like to relax...

I can't post any of the pictures that I want to, but they're remarkable. 13 June 2008: Strong Activity at the Fissure in Valle del Bove Here's another site from Volcano Discovery on the May 2008 eruptions that's similar. From: Etna eruption May 2008 Here's a couple of context images. The first shows where the Valle del Bove is. The second is from space, and the Valle del Bove is the broad dark-brown area to the right (east) of the summit craters.

Love is in the air: Amazing images of clouds from space By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 4:02 PM on 21st June 2008This is what earth looks like from above. And the spectacular pictures taken from 200 miles... Astronauts on the International Space Station took the snaps while travelling at 17,000 miles per hour during one of its 15 daily orbits.... Love is in the air over a Mexican islandThey show the complex meterological systems from an angle seen by a select few. Images include towering clouds, dust storms, lightening and a host of other meterological occurances. Astronauts are...

Penny McKim is an antiques hobbyist who considers herself a skilled treasure hunter. So when she came across a shoebox full of coins and medals at a church flea market in Montgomery County, she had an idea she'd struck gold. Turns out that $5 box contained three ounces of gold in the form of a distinctive medal presented in 1928 to Charles M. Schwab, the man who built Bethlehem Steel into a world titan. ''It's rather ironic,'' said McKim, of Stowe, Montgomery County. ''Schwab was a powerful man who ended up dying penniless, yet I'm sitting here with three ounces...

FReeps have such great taste! So, I thought I would put this out there. One of my favorite things to do during the summer months is read to my children before they go to sleep. Actually, I do this year round, but particularly enjoy reading to them during the summer months. At times we get carried away with some of the great children’s lit available ~ with Mom finally coming up tho the bedrooms at 10:30 to shut down the evening's activities. At which point we may have to get real quiet and me straining my eyes. It’s great to...

Sydney, Australia (AHN) - A 1954 masterpiece from Pablo Picasso broke auction records in Australia when it sold for $6.9 million. "Sylvette 1954" was auctioned off at Deutscher-Menzies Galleries in Kensington on Wednesday. Gallery art head Tim Abdullah had predicted the painting would fetch between $5 and $ 7 million. Picasso painted "Sylvette" in 1954 while living in the Cote d'Azur. The master was reportedly so taken with the model that he created 40 paintings and drawings of her in a span of one month."Sylvette is an exciting pivotal late work in the career of the artist, that shows the...

LOS ANGELES — Cyd Charisse, who with her long-legged beauty brought sizzle and sophistication to dance in classic movie musicals such as "Singin' in the Rain" and "Silk Stockings," died Tuesday. She was 86.

Full-size (for full effect). Basaseachi is a 312 meter waterfall.

OK, this is my second 'arts' post of the day, but since my Clint Eastwood one proved to be so rewarding, here is another one. I am a card-carrying Beach Boys nutter, I even take medicine to slow me down on that. I saw Brian Wilson three times live in the past years (two of them in the prestigious London Royal Festival Hall - best setting ever). Top stuff. A couple of weeks ago, the only solo album of the late Dennis Wilson was finally re-released, after decades of legal hassles. Suppleted with lots of bonus cuts from his unreleased...

Hi everyone - being a relative newbie, I could yet not resist this one: yesterday I saw 'Unforgiven' by Clint Eastwood for the first time. To start: I found it a stunningly good movie. It's been labelled as 'the very last western', or if you will, a revisionist version of trad western fare. I'd agree with both comments; but at the same time it's not out of step with tradional storytelling. What makes it special for me is the deep humanity in it all. Women of low standing are heroines; Clint stays true to the one woman that once saved...

Cassini Nears Four-year Mark RSS|Archives Archives June 2008 May May 30, 2008 04:16 PM NASA's Cassini Spacecraft is now reaching the end of its four-year....extended mission. What a nice excuse for a retrospective of some of the great images sent back home.... (12 photos total: The rest can be found here) The Sun is on the opposite side, so all of Saturn is backlit. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech================================== Swirls in Saturn's cloud-tops. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech=========================== The surface of Saturn's moon Dione, up close. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech ========================= Tiny moon Janus, seen before Saturn's rings, with massive moon Titan beyond. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech ========================= Saturn's moon...

Bruce and the Band, Because the Night, live.

ZION — A school bus driver and amateur artist from the Chicago suburb of Zion has legally changed his name to "In God We Trust." A Lake County circuit court judge approved Steve Kreuscher's (CROY'-shirz) name change petition on Friday. The 57-year-old's first name was changed to "In God," while his last name was changed to "We Trust." He says the new name symbolizes the help God gave him during tough times and says he can't wait to begin signing his artwork with the new moniker.

Drudge has this up on a story of the Iowa twister.

William Shatner running for President, great video!Link

Two events on June 6 might denote the death of the "slacker" as an American cultural archetype. The first was the largest monthly jump in the US unemployment rate in two decades, due to an unexpectedly large number of young entrants into the labor market. The second was the release of the film Kung Fu Panda, which transposes the ubiquitous slacker-makes-good story line into the incongruous setting of Chinese martial arts. America might be the first country in recorded history whose culture celebrates not only indolence but also the sheer absence of ability. Byronic loafing is the birthright of genius,...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Vinny Appice, Anita Baker, Jello Biafra, Andrea Bocelli, Simon LeBon, Kate Bush, Belinda Carlisle, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shaun Cassidy, Darby Crash, Randy DeBarge, Bruce Dickinson, Thomas Dolby, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Siobhan Fahey, Neil Finn, Bela Fleck, Martin Fry, Lisa Germano, Grandmaster Flash, Jools Holland, Ice-T, Alan Jackson, Michael Jackson, Tony James, Joan Jett, Al Jourgensen, Nik Kershaw, Sammy Kershaw, Limahl, Madonna, Bird McIntyre, Mike Mills, Thurston Moore, Alannah Miles, Gary Numan, Michael Penn, Vicki Peterson, Prince, Stacey Q, Will Sergeant, Nikki Sixx, David Sylvian, Toyah, Tanya Tucker, Paul Weller, Jane Wiedlin, Jah Wobble.

Four Lion Cubs Born In Norway At the Kristiansand Dyrepark (Zoo) the lioness Sera is the proud mother of four cubs born on Saturday morning, the first ever lion birth in Norway. First reports had the number at three, but on Sunday a fourth came into view.

Another in an occasional series of great state parks. Ricketts Glen is a fairly large state park west of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre; apparently chock-full of waterfalls (24 named on the Falls Trail). Here's a couple: This one's called Ganoga Falls; nice change-of-pace with black-and-white. At 94 feet, it's the tallest in the park. Nice small picture, no name given. Could be the same fall as the one below it (Murray Reynolds Falls). Murray Reynolds Falls: This last one was also taken at Ricketts Glen, not a waterfall, and it's 1/4 size (click for full-size). Nice desktop candidate.

And the war of words between Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood goes for one more round. After the 78-year-old Hollywood legend lobed a Dirty Harry-esque one-liner at the pint-sized director - telling him to "shut his face" over criticisms that no African-Americans appeared in Eastwood's drama "Flags of Our Fathers" - Lee has offered up a response. "First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation," Lee told ABCNEWS.com.

SLIDESHOW: Look Inside Camouflage Pin-Up 2008 Reporting LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― Twelve beautiful women, dressed only in paint brushed on by a world-renowned artist, posed for a 2008 pin-up calendar with the mission to raise awareness and money for wounded veterans and their families. Model Manuela Mezzadri launched Operation Calendar -- now in its third year -- after visiting with wounded veterans. Mezzadri, moved by what she saw, decided to act. "Each year Manuela brings a bunch of beautiful women together and she has them body-painted and puts together a beautiful calendar to help support our wounded veterans," said former...

Hello All, I'm a broken glass conservative of the Barry Goldwater persuasion and with Barak Obama touting his, multi-ethnic, African roots I'm wondering why no one ( at least to my knowledge ) has put the "boy who would be king" in an Egyptian headdress.Rush . . . Paul Shanklin ARE YOU LISTENING ? ? ?,/div>

Every Memorial Day Weekend, the city of Columbia has the Memorial parade, and they unfurl Old Glory in the middle of town while the parade goes under it. It's pretty amazing to see Old Glory like this. This year I didn't participate in the parade, so I had a chance to take pictures of the Columbia FD put up Old Glory.

Features - June 2, 2008 Digital Forensics: 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Photo By Hany Farid This story is a supplement to the feature "Digital Forensics: How Experts Uncover Doctored Images" which was printed in the June 2008 issue of Scientific American. Lighting Composite images made of pieces from different photographs can display subtle differences in the lighting conditions under which each person or object was originally photographed. Such discrepancies will often go unnoticed by the naked eye. For an image such as the one at the right, my group can estimate the direction of the light source for...

All right, 630 WMAL fans! Here's the latest scoop from the DCRTV.org blog [i.e. "rag"]-- Hannity To 3WT? TNT's Talkers To MAL & 3WT? - 6/3 - When we asked a top 3WTer about whether the Bonneville talker was talking to afternoon righty talk radio icon Sean Hannity, we were met with dead silence. Not a denial. Which makes us really wonder if there's some truth to the rumors that Hannity may soon be bolting from Citadel's family of stations, including WMAL. Also, it appears that Hannity could be talking to Fox or Premiere or Mark Masters about taking over...

Sorry I missed last week. So here's two, one from space, one from the ground, of Ireland's Burren. Source article for the first image: Burren Plateau, County Clare, Ireland Click for full-size (this is half-size): Clints and grikes OK, well, three then:

It's post-Memorial Day, which means it's also supposed to be the start of summer. Maybe the season shift doesn't directly effect the percentage of air guitars, but the nicer weather feels like a good enough reason to believe so, to have faith in good riffs and well-oiled six strings. Rolling Stone fulfills the need -- or at least provides the blueprint for a guitar-centric mixtape -- with a list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs Of All Time." As they write: This is what makes a great rock & roll guitar sound: an irresistible riff; a solo or jam that...

Bo(woof) In Commentary: Cuteness comes in many forms, although I believe the cutest is of the canine form. So what makes you feel warm all over (besides me peeing on your leg)?....http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/29/q-t-piis/

Mountain Lions Stop By For A Drink

I’ve just seen Sex and the City and now I’m going to review it. There will be spoilers. If you’re still waiting with baited breath to see this movie (a description that I doubt applies to many Freepers) don’t read any further unless you’ve already guessed that it’s going to be pretty much like a Jane Austen story but with gratuitous sex scenes, designer clothes, and a plethora of clichéd observations about life and love. In other words, a happy ending, and no one dies. I should say right away, I was expecting someone to die because I’d overheard a...

Astonishing.

MOJAVE - The East Kern Airport District directors approved in principle a plan to add a small live steam railroad to the Legacy Park under development at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The railroad is proposed by the Mojave Transportation Museum as a tourist attraction and means of conveying the community's long history as a railroad town. "We just saw it as a wonderful opportunity for tourism," said Cathy Hansen, museum board member and airport district director. Hansen abstained from the district directors' 4-0 vote on the proposal. The proposed railroad track would circle the park area. It could...

[Bold emphases were inserted by me.] PRESS RELEASEJeanine Basinger, noted film expert and professor at Wesleyan University of Middletown, CT recently recorded DVD commentary on Budd Boetticher westerns. Hartford, CT, May 30, 2008 --(PR.com)-- It was a B Movie bonanza in Tapeworks today, as noted film authority Jeanine Basinger narrated a companion DVD track to the Budd Boetticher Western, “The Tall ‘T’” starring Randolph Scott and Maureen O’Sullivan. This is the first in a series of Boetticher releases that will comprise a box set of the director's distinctive works. A regular presence in the Hartford recording studio, Prof. Basinger has...

SUSAN SARANDON, who appeared in three films last year and won kudos for her TV movie "Bernard and Doris," is still not a contented soul. She says if John McCain gets elected, she will move to Italy or Canada. She adds, "It's a critical time, but I have faith in the American people."

A hip rock band that features the Soviet national anthem and communist-inspired lyrics was on stage to open for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at his record-breaking Portland, Ore., rally that attracted 75,000. The Decemberists, a Portland-based group with a large local following, also closed the May 18 event. The Decemberists typically begin their concerts with a Russian-language recording of the USSR's national anthem. A YouTube video shows the Decemberists beginning an April 31, 2007, concert at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., with the anthem.

The leaning tower of Pisa has been successfully stabilised and is out of danger for at least 300 years, said an engineer who has been monitoring the iconic Italian tourist attraction. "All of our expectations have been confirmed," Professor Michele Jamiolkowski, an engineer and geologist, was quoted as telling Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera. The tower's tilt of about four metres off the vertical has remained stable in recent years, after a big engineering project that ended in 2001 corrected its lean by about 40 centimetres from where it was in 1990 when the project began. "Now we can...

The car chase has always been a cornerstone of the action genre of cinema. It seems that any movie involving cops and robbers or good guys and bad guys, will at some point lead to one chasing the other at high speeds through winding city streets or back highway roads. As special effects and stunt coordinating have gotten more advanced through the years, filmmakers have been trying to outdo each other by creating more intense and incredible chase sequences. Here is a list of some of the most memorable car chases in the history of cinema: 20. Running Scared (1986)...

A 2,500-year-old gold cup that has spent the past 60 years in a box under its owner’s bed is expected to fetch up to £100,000 after being rediscovered during a house move. The cup was given to John Webber by his grandfather, a rag-and-bone man, who acquired it in the 1930s. Because his grandfather, William Sparks, dealt in brass and copper scrap, Mr Webber assumed that it was made from those metals until he had the unusual piece valued this year. The cup, which is 5.5in (14 cm) high, is embossed with two female faces, each wearing a crown formed...