"Racism is so stupid. There's more than enough reasons to dislike people on an individual basis."

- Will Durst, political satirist

Andy Baio of Waxy is digitizing his collection of VHS tapes about the Internet from the early to mid-1990s.

The earliest snapshots in the Wayback Machine are from the mid 90s, so Andy said that "this represents pieces of the web that don't exist anywhere else."

This one is from a two-tape collection called "Internet Power!" from 1995:

"You'll need a device to access the online world. That device is a Computer, with at least 386 power and 8 megabytes of RAM and has a modem installed that has 14.4 or greater speed or 'baud rate.' And of course, access to a phone line. If you have a slower modem, you will not be able to enjoy the growing multimedia aspects of the Internet, such as graphics, sound, and video."

The tape even covered search engines:

"To get started, we have to sift through the vast amounts of information on the Internet and find what we need. The best way to do this is by using one of the many Search Engines available. These sites gather the information that is out there and categorize it so we can narrow our search. One popular site to do this is called Yahoo!"

The list of search engines on the slide is a great flashback. "Web Crawler, Lycos, Einet, WWW Worm, Yahoo, Info Seek, Savvy Search... and More"

"Normally, these sites would take a few seconds to load to your computer, but in the interest of time, we're cutting to them through editing for the purposes of this video."

Later, they cover a long-lost site called "The Weatherman," where you email your trip profile and a nice guy named George Gatto emails you a weather forecast by hand. I can't imagine that'd scale very well.

Link

When Tyler Larson, a 25-year-old doctoral paleontology student at Yale University discovered a dinosaur on his uncle's ranch almost a decade ago, he stumbled upon something truly rare, a 65-million-year-old mummified duckbilled dinosaur:

Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65-million-year-old rock tomb.

"This is the closest many people will ever get to seeing what large parts of a dinosaur actually looked like, in the flesh," said Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Manchester University in England, a member of the international team researching Dakota.

"This is not the usual disjointed sentence or fragment of a word that the fossil records offer up as evidence of past life. This is a full chapter."

Link (Photo: Will Kincaid / AP)

To fulfill a promise, Cai Ruigong hired an erotic dancer to perform at his father's funeral:

Son, Cai Ruigong, paid her more than £80 to dance in memory of his late father, reports United Daily News.

Cai Ruigong says he promised his father a stripper for his funeral if he lived beyond the age of 100. [...]

His son said his father was famous locally for his interest in strip clubs: "He would travel around the island with his friends to see these shows," he added.

Link

Meet Floyd and Justin Bebee, a father and son team and obviously forehead tattoo enthusiasts. The Smoking Gun has the story:

In a TSG interview, Floyd Bebee, a father of eight, said that he has a tattoo on the back of his head reading "Got-R-Did." The ink on his forehead cost $125 and took about 45 minutes to complete, Bebee said, adding that he was the family trendsetter when it it came to such head art. Bebee, who does odd jobs like home remodeling and demolition, said that his wife had a succinct response to his forehead ink: "You crazy," she said. Bebee noted that since his son's eyes are open in his mug shot, the photo does not reveal a hidden surprise: Justin has the words "Fuck" and "You" tattooed on his eyelids.

Link (don't miss TSG's pictures of other forehead tattoo enthusiasts) - via Boing Boing

After they lost their beloved dogs, Beth and Brian Willis of Newcastle, England, found a unique way to keep their beloved pets close to their hearts: by turning their fur into sweaters!

After seeing a picture of Princess Diana wearing a dog fur stole at Crufts, they collected thousands of dog hairs from brushes and carpets.

The pair said the his and hers dog memorials were "warm and waterproof".

Mr Willis, who worked for Pickfords Removals for 27 years, wears his doggy jumper into town every Saturday to do the weekly shop.

The 73-year-old said: "They are extremely warm and pretty much waterproof. I've always got a sweat on by the time I get from the bus to the shops."

Link

Photo: Peterkellystudios

Neatorama reader Peter Kelly took a photo of this unfortunately named "Angel Dust" store in Cairo Egypt. Either the term just doesn't have the same meaning there or they're selling something else besides men's clothing.

Thanks Peter!

Attention hipsters: you wear black t-shirt, black jeans, black shoes ... but still use white tissues to blow your nose? You need this: a box of Japanese black facial tissue.

Spiddlement blog has more pics: Link - Thanks Jeff Jones!

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, a giant in the science fiction genre and early proponent of the geosynchronous satellite orbit, has died.

Recently, Sir Arthur videotaped his reflections on his 90th birthday, in which he talked about the future of space travel and more (Hit play or go to Link [YouTube])

I distinctly remember reading Rendezvous with Rama, which actually was my first sci-fi novel. He will be missed.

Monobrow.com is a website that celebrates "the unity of eyebrows." It thinks that people with one eyebrow (isn't that used to be called unibrow?) are cool ;)

My favorite is their Mono Bro of the Week: This one is New York cabbie Azize Hasad whose symmetry of eyebrow and moustache is downright genius.

Link - via Miss Cellania

You're looking at the 1986 Ferrari Testarossa ... go-kart! The toy car is powered by a 5 HP Briggs & Stratton motor with 2 speed automatic transmission. It comes with working retractable headlights and turn signals, horn, CD stereo system, independent suspension and even a hydraulically operated rear disc brakes (well, the car can go 30 mph, so you'll need it).

The Ferrari Testarossa go-kart will set you back $25,000 - the price of a real car! - but what's money if it makes junior happy?

http://ww2.collectorcartrader.com/details.php?adId=90212566 - via GeekAlerts

This looks like fun: make your own homopolar motor made from only a battery, a magnet and a copper wire!

See it in action: Link (embedded YouTube) | More info at Dangerously Fun | Homopolar Motor in Wikipedia

Flickr user yusheng snapped this photo of a weird sign in the Taipei Zoo. Apparently, the sign warned visitors to watch out for mischevious monkey hands, but I think what it really meant was no acupuncture. Either that or beware of cactus pickpocket.

Link (Photo: Yusheng) - via Super Punch, who has a couple more bizarre signs

Jim and Nicky with his Taurus .38 snub nose special, Colt 380-Auto, Pony Pocketlite and Sig Sauer P232 .380. (Photo: Kyle Cassidy)

Jim: When I was diagnosed with cancer I found myself and my family in need of protection. I was too old to fight, too sick to run, and since cancer took my vocal cords, I couldn't yell for help. I purchased my first ever firearm.

Freelance writer and photographer Kyle Cassidy traveled 15,000 miles taking photos of gun owners in America and asking them this simple question: "Why do you own a gun?" Some of their answers were surprising.

Two years later, he compiled his work in a book titled Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes. Link - via One Large Prawn

Meet Eli Bowen, a man born in 1844 with feet but without legs (he was born with feet attached directly to his pelvis). Despite of this, Eli strived to live an extraordinary life: see, he wanted to be ... an acrobat!

Eli learned early to use his arms and legs to compensate for his lack of legs. Eli would hold thick, wooden blocks in his palms and use them as ‘shoes’, elevating his torso in order to walk on his hands. As a result of that process as well as steady farm labour Bowen developed enormous strength and even in adulthood he was able to navigate his 140 pound frame anywhere he chose. He started his professional career at the age of 13 in various wagon shows before eventually touring independently, performing in dime museums and finally touring Europe with Barnum and Bailey Circus. He garnered a reputation for being a magnificent and effortless tumbler and acrobat and for his phenomenal feats of strength.

Billed as ‘The Legless Acrobat’ Eli Bowen was known for his remarkable tumbling abilities but was applauded internationally for his extraordinary routine known simply as ‘the pole routine’. While Eli stood only twenty-four inches in height he had no reservations about climbing a thirteen foot pole in order to balance on a single hand at its peak. Griping the pole Eli would stretch his torso straight, parallel to the ground, and spin around the pole. Eli would then hold himself parallel to the pole using only his right arm. The routine not only displayed Bowen’s strength, but was also unusually graceful. Soon, Eli Bowen was commanding a salary of over $100 a week.

Read more about the remarkable Eli Bowen (and why he's popular with the ladies!) at The Human Marvels: http://www.thehumanmarvels.com/2008/03/eli-bowen-legless-acrobat.html