This Washington Post Magazine article tells the story of several professional miniature golfers who competed at the 2006 miniature golf U.S. Open.

"The U.S. Open of the ProMiniGolf Association is a two-day, nine-round competition that kicks off at the Hawaiian Rumble, which sits on Route 17, amid a string of swimwear stores, aging shopping centers, seafood restaurants and other miniature golf courses. The Hawaiian Rumble takes its name from a 40-foot, concrete volcano in the center of the course, skirted by a moat, its waters dyed the deep, alien blue of glacial ice. Every half-hour or so, the volcano quakes with artificial thunder, and a four-foot kerosene flame spurts from the caldera. On the morning of the U.S. Open, a halo of gray fog was leaking steadily from a ring of vesicles a few feet below the crater's lip, but the flame and thunder apparatus had been turned off so as not to fray the nerves of the golfers, who were already on the course, putting away with nervous intensity."

With today's release of Superman Returns, I thought it would be a good idea to look back at the 1978 movie Superman. No, not the Christopher Reeve film, but a rip-off the made in India. According to this review of the Indian Superman, it "is one of those rare movies that manages to offend on every level. It is badly acted, badly directed, badly filmed, and makes no sense whatsoever. And just to add that extra level of offensiveness, the whole project is probably illegal."

According to this WWF article, scientists have discovered a new chameleon-like snake in Borneo.

This International Herald Tribune article explains how the extinction of plants and loss of genetic diversity threatens our food supply:

"Historically, humans utilized more than 7,000 plant species to meet their basic food needs, Esquinas says. Today, due to the limitations of modern large-scale, mechanized farming, only 150 plant species are under cultivation, and the majority of humans live on only 12 plant species, according to research by the Food and Agriculture Organization."

The Sun Herald compiled these links to flash animation showing photographs of South Mississippi before and after Hurricane Katrina.

PitchforkMedia.com presents 100 Awesome Music Videos.

I Love 80s Music has links to over 1400 music videos from the 1980s.

According to this New York Times article, we are on the verge of a revolution in aquaculture that may lead to the domestication of the ocean:

"Taking a long-range view, there is little doubt that we are on the verge of a vast new artificial selection that will determine the characteristics of a future marine ecology. As recently as 20 years ago, aquacultured products were niche items — the bright red slab of lox from Norway, the crawdad from Louisiana. Today, dozens of mainstream fish are being domesticated and will soon appear at supermarket counters everywhere. Yellowtail, halibut, red snapper and even Volkswagen-size bluefin tuna are all coming under some kind of human-controlled production. And whereas animals like sheep and cattle were adapted to fit the farm over thousands of years, many of the ocean species under development today could be tamed in as little as a decade."

The Oriskany, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, was sunk 24 miles off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., on May 17 to form an artificial reef. Watch the ship sink in this series of photographs called The Sinking of the Oriskany.

This Google video shows an FAA Radar track sequence of a bank of FedEx aircraft getting into Memphis as thunderstorms pass over the airport.

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

Follow this link to an optical illusion called the Big Spanish Castle.

Galactic Pizza is a forward thinking company with a vision of the future. They use only renewable wind energy. Their pizzas are delivered by people dressed as superheroes who drive electric cars, and as this article explains, occasionally they foil street crime.

Derek Abbott's Animal Noise Page is the world's biggest multilingual list of how different languages mimic animal sounds. For example, horses say "neigh" in English, "hi-hiin" in Japanese, and "i-go-go" in Russian.

In this Washington Post column, E. J. Dionne explains that, "This month's offensive by President Bush and his allies in Congress against gay marriage and flag burning proves one thing: The Republican Party thinks its base of social conservatives is a nest of dummies who have no memories and respond like bulls whenever red flags are waved in their faces."

Last weekend Stephen Colbert gave the 2006 Knox College Commencement Address:

"And when you enter the workforce, you will find competition from those crossing our all-too-pourous borders. Now I know you’re all going to say, “Stephen, Stephen, immigrants built America.” Yes, but here’s the thing—it’s built now. I think it was finished in the mid-70s sometime. At this point it’s a touch-up and repair job. But thankfully Congress is acting and soon English will be the official language of America. Because if we surrender the national anthem to Spansih, the next thing you know, they’ll be translating the Bible. God wrote it in English for a reason! So it could be taught in our public schools.

So we must build walls. A wall obviously across the entire southern border. That’s the answer. That may not be enough—maybe a moat in front of it, or a fire-pit. Maybe a flaming moat, filled with fire-proof crocodiles. And we should probably wall off the northern border as well. Keep those Canadians with their socialized medicine and their skunky beer out. And because immigrants can swim, we’ll probably want to wall off the coasts as well. And while we’re at it, we need to put up a dome, in case they have catapults. And we’ll punch some holes in it so we can breathe. Breathe free. It’s time for illegal immigrants to go—right after they finish building those walls. Yes, yes, I agree with me."

From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the Movie Binge team will watch every major movie released. Their site allows you to follow along as they try to watch all 85 films.