Wider Angle: Links for 06.24.06

The Mermaid Parade on Coney Island was today. The Pride parade and festival is in Manhattan is tomorrow. Big weekend in NYC.

The United States embassy in Iraq is the size of 80 football fields and will be occupied by 8,000 people. Construction is being kept secret and no photographers are allowed in close distance. What the fuck? [thanks Steven]

Giant little girl marionette on YouTube. She's massive. [thanks Alexis]

Alexis frequently needs strange things for props in films and videos and videofilms. Perhaps she may need a corpse sometime. This link is for her. [via metafilter]

The Principality of Sealand, an offshore abandoned military station that now houses countless servers for sites that want to be crazy private with their data, has suffered a huge fire. They vow to rebuild, but their ability to hang onto nation status may be in peril now that all occupants have left.

The Pirate Bay is among the top 500 web sites, according to Alexa. [via digg]

Watch the full episode of Frontline "The Dark Side" on PBS.org for free. "Amid revelations about faulty prewar intelligence and a scandal surrounding the indictment of the vice president's chief of staff and presidential adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, FRONTLINE goes behind the headlines to investigate the internal war that was waged between the intelligence community and Richard Bruce Cheney, the most powerful vice president in the nation's history."

A scale model of a hyrdrogen atom on your screen. (From 2004, long before Population : One)

13 new episodes of Futurama are scheduled for production for Comedy Central! The network probably paid $30 million to air the whole catalog when their deal with Cartoon Network expires in 2008.

Wedding gifts can be tough to identify, and though the recipient is most certainly grateful, a concise note might be warranted.

This asshole who beat up a group of kids, even a girl, gets socked in the face on video. Beat that, Sunday New York Times.

Sesame Street is so cool that Stevie Wonder was on it performing "Superstition" in 1973. He also did his own version of the Sesame Street theme song that's unbelievable. If only kids today had it so good. Instead they get this. [via metafilter]

Who Came 2 Serve was evidently a kickass breakdancing competition in Chicago in 2005. Highlights are on Google Video.

How-to: grill chicken successfully.

The United States government has been able to look into bank records of people globally. It's "'absolutely essential' to protecting the country from further attacks, Vice President Cheney said yesterday." Fantastic. Now seems like a good time to mention that Halliburton's government contracts have increased 600% since Cheney took office. [via digg]

Some states are coming to their senses and banding together to reject the Electoral College as it stands and throw their votes behind the national popular vote winner in Presidential elections. "Established by the US Constitution in 1787, the [Electoral College system] has occasionally awarded the presidency to candidates who couldn't muster the most votes nationwide, as happened in 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000." In an era of instant communication, I see no reason why popular vote shouldn't rule, and rule swiftly. No more swing state bullshit. [via metafilter]