The MODIS Land Rapid Response system has been developed to provide rapid access to MODIS data globally, with initial emphasis on 250m color composite imagery and active fire data. The experience gained during the Montana fires of 2000, when the MODIS team was asked to provide active fire information to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), has led to the improvement and automation of several of the steps involved in MODIS rapid data provision.

Very close to what I'm looking for...

MODIS Rapid Response System

] As gloriously impenetrable as its title, and even more
] visually spectacular than its precursor, Mamoru Oshii's
] new anime - Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence - can
] be most simply described as an animated film noir
] populated by existential cyborgs.

Opens friday...

The Village Voice: Film: Anime Sequel Philosophizes Amid Shoot-Outs and Cyborgs by J. Hoberman

] Each day a different image or photograph of our
] fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief
] explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Some days are more interesting then others..

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Why isn't there a webcam in space? I ought to be able to go to a webpage a look at a picture of the earth from space! Look at the weather patterns and the like... Does anyone know of anything like this?

Ivan from space. I like this one in particular:

http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news/camex/photos/iss009e22187.jpg

NASA Hurricane Photos - Marshall Space Flight Center

] Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow is a nearly
] picture-perfect blend of stylistic sense and
] sensibilities of the bygone era of movie serials.

When I first saw this I was really suprised by the strangeness of it's vision. Its really what someone in the 30s might have imagined the future would be like. I was worried, based I guess on the way it was marketed, that it might be an interesting world filled with recycled hollywood crap, but it turns out the critics seem to like it. It might not suck...

CityBeat Film Reviews: Sky Captain

] Talk.Origins is a Usenet newsgroup devoted to the discussion and
] debate of biological and physical origins. Most
] discussions in the newsgroup center on the
] creation/evolution controversy, but other topics of
] discussion include the origin of life, geology,
] biology, catastrophism, cosmology and theology.

This is an encyclopedic resource on theories of creation. Of course, those with particularly strong opinions are unlikely to be interested in reading this. But in certain cases it could be helpful. For example, someone told me a few weeks ago that Darwin renounced his theories on his death bed. Turns out thats not true... (or at least highly unlikely)

The Talk.Origins Archive: Exploring the Creation/Evolution/Intelligent Design Controversy

] Researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago have
] confirmed what many high-tech workers have long
] suspected: The job market for technology experts remains
] bleak, years after the U.S. recession officially ended in
] late 2001.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Report: High-tech job market has lost more than 400,000 jobs

Finally! A map of everyone's favorite fictional berg, Springfield!

map of springfield

] Among Putin's reforms announced Monday: the country's 89
] regional governors will no longer be elected by popular
] vote. Instead, he will appoint them and regional
] assemblies would approve the appointments.
]
] He also announced on Monday that seats in the Duma
] (Russia's national parliament) allocated to single-member
] constituencies will be replaced with a fully proportional
] system. The move "could see the few remaining independent
] voices forced out of the federal parliament"

Puntin uses school attacks to cripple democracy in Russia.