Ahhhh, artists, how I love your crazy ideas. An art group are proposing an extremely odd (and interesting) project / installation which would involve placing a gigantic banana over Texas, floating 30km to 50km above the US state for around 1 month. The banana will be constructed much like a blimp, with a 300 meter long semi-rigid structure made from bamboo, encased with a helium-filled skin of synthetic paper. The project is supposedly in it’s final stage of engineering and a launch time is currently being scheduled for August 2008. Real or not, I’d love to see the reaction to a giant banana floating over the Bush ranch, though I’d assume it would be seen as a giant risk to national security and subsequently shot down.

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Ok, maybe it’s not TRUE real-time, but this RSOE HAVARIA map, plotting National Association of Radio-Distress Signaling and Info-communications (say that 3 times really quickly) distress signals will keep me up at nights for weeks to come. Whether you want to be updated in real time when there’s a breakout of the pharyngeal plague in Zambia (currently flashing red on the map!!!) or biological hazard reported in Bolivia, the RSOE HAVARIA map has it all. Who needs news alerts when you can get the news direct from the source?

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For many, using open source software is about equivalent to breathing, but for most, we need certain commercial software in order work, easy communicate with family or even to sometimes surf the internet. But that’s quickly changing. As the quality levels of many open source projects begin to soar and more and more developers are opening their software up, the need for certain commercial software is rapidly diminishing. Still lost? Well, let osalt.com help you find your way. Collecting links, descriptions and explanations to some of the best open source apps this side of the www, osalt guides you through the process of open sourcing your Windows XP, Mac OS X or Linux machine with ease, offering you open source alternatives to some of the largest commercial software in existence.

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Kori Gardner, 1/2 of the sickly-sweet indie-pop duo Mates of State (which also features her husband Jason Hammel) has created a tour diary at Babble called “Band on the (Diaper) Run”, covering their experiences as a touring band with their two year old daughter Magnolia accompanying them. The entries are extremely cool, showing the steps the band’s crew, nanny, mother and father take in making sure the environment and experiences are as enjoyable as possible for the two year old. So far the band and family have played together with Madonna (who I’m sure enjoyed meeting their daughter), swam together in the fountain of youth in Iceland, headed to Australia, toured with Death Cab for Cutie (who are now Magnolia’s best friends) and enjoyed lots of rain and mashed peas in London. An awesome adventure for any two year old and I have to give much much credit for the care that the parents put into giving their child an awesome experience starting at such an early age. Watch their latest video for the track “Like U Crazy” over at our little brother-blog Tropics and Meridians and watch for the shout-out to their daughter, which is a regular easter egg throughout Mates of State’s songs and videos.

Read more: Band on the (Diaper) Run 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 | Mates of State

I hope I won’t regret this post, but let’s just see how this goes. So, what does September 11th, Jesus Christ flying a UFO, a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise and George W. Bush have in common? Stumped? Well, NESARA of course! NESARA stands for National Economic Security and Reformation act, a bill allegedly passed during a secret session of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by Bill Clinton. The bill supposedly would reorganize the entire U.S. economy and government, through acts such as forgiveness of bank, credit and mortgage debt, abolishing the IRS by creating a flat, new items only sales tax, restores constitutional law and naturally, ends all forms of aggressive U.S. military activities world wide. An admirable bill, I must admit, if only it were true.

NESARA a hotly contested conspiracy theory, with several splinter groups preaching various degrees of madness, features one such group that has recently seen the release of it’s first documentary (though often billed as a comedy) titled “Waiting for NESARA”. Following an organized group of ex-Mormons awaiting the passage of NESARA around Salt Lake City, Utah, the group meets in the back of a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise and believes that the passage of NESARA will bring about the removal of George W. Bush by exposing him as a reptilian alien and that Jesus Christ piloting a UFO will be installed as America’s new leader.

I’m now rendered speechless so hit the jump to witness the trailer for Waiting for NESARA…

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Working in web development I’m constantly finding myself taking screenshots, which I am then manipulating manually, cutting and pasting here and there and back again, in an attempt to get the perfect shot. I knew of screenshot tools on the PC, maybe even used one or two here and there, but, for some reason they just never stuck. Now that I’m fully using OS X for everything I do, I’ve noticed the need for taking screenshots rapidly, with as little downtime as possible, and I think I’ve finally found the perfect piece of software for me. InstantShot! is a freeware piece of software (free as in beer, or bier) which creates a menu icon under OS X, assigning an easy to use UI for OS X’s screenshot functionality, allowing you to capture whole screen, partial screen and timed captures. All this for the low-price of nothing, but donations are highly encouraged.

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An inventive pet shop owner in the Netherlands has created an interesting liquid refreshment for her pet dogs, Doggy Beer. Originally as a way to reward their hunting dogs for the days hunt (in Austria no less), the beer known as Kwispelbier, is made out of beef and malt extracts and while fit for human consumption, is probably the most horrid tasting thing ever put into a bottle by a professional brewer. It’s non-alcoholic and costs around 1.65 EUR per bottle.

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We’re back in outer space again this post, bringing you The Onion’s absolutely fucking brilliant parody of the Apollo moon landing, featuring extremely high production value and some great voice acting. Hear what the first astronauts on the moon really meant to say, all while dreaming out to a Brian Eno track.

Hit the jump to view the NSFW, not safe for kids, not safe for fuddy-duddies video…

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Who needs planet Earth when we’ve got Mars?? That’s what I’m saying. The Mars Society, a group of scientists who share a goal of colonizing Mars, believes that humans can colonize the red planet in little more than 1000 years, in stark competition with other scientist’s who say it would be 20,000-100,000 years. According to the society, Mars could be colonized in 3 steps, the first of which is occurring now, exploration. Though many human landings would need to take place, the following steps would involve sketchy actions, such as giant mirrors directing the sun to the planet in an attempt to warm it, freeing gasses and eventually creating a global warming type effect. One of the options would be to build several chemical plants on the surface, pumping out 1,000 tons of fluoromethane an hour, which would raise the temperature on the red planet by 50°F over 30 years. See the complete PopSci walkthrough for a complete walkthrough of scenarios for terraforming planet Mars.

Read more: Mars habitable in 1000 years

In case you’ve missed it, which I don’t see *how* on Earth you possibly could, a new Ubuntu fork is coming soon, called Ubuntu Studio. Though I don’t know how they could possibly improve Ubuntu (this coming from an OS X evangelist), Ubuntu Studio will be a special version of Ubuntu Linux aimed at audio, video and graphics enthusiasts and professionals. Though there is little word on what multimedia-specific features Ubuntu Studio will press forward, it has been announced that popular tools such as Audacity and of course, Blender will be included. Ubuntu Studio drops in April, so here’s to waiting breathlessly for yet another reason not to switch to Windows Vista.

Read more: Ubuntu Studio coming soon