"It’s a mammal with a long, rat-like snout, a rather high number of small incisors, closely spaced premolars with pointed cusps, and especially long, curved upper canines. Note that, unlike dogs, foxes and so on, it doesn’t have an obvious rhinarium (the area of dark, distinctly textured skin that surrounds the nostrils in such animals). These features all immediately screamed “opossum” to me. Partly this is because I’ve handled opossum skulls and am familiar with their surprisingly big upper canines and high number of incisors. Even the fur looks opossum-like (mammal carcasses typically slough fur after they’ve been decomposing in water for a while, and this explains the naked face). When you add all this to the fact that the Virginia opossum is a common, widespread mammal in California we have an obvious and uncontroversial identification." READ MORE

This new Madonna video, in which M.I.A. appears (and doesn't do much, along with Nicki Minaj), is not as good as M.I.A.'s new video, "Bad Girls." Considering this, and also the great video Jay-Z and Kanye West made for their song "Otis" last summer, it seems that the Bay Area hip-hop subculture known as "hyphy," which peaked four or five years ago, is having its most lasting cultural impact in the phenomena of the dangerous-looking car tricks known as "ghost riding."

"State officials Thursday pointed to the failure of the quality assurance office within the Vermont Correctional Industries Print Shop in St. Albans to detect a prisoner-artist’s addition made four years ago to the traditional state police logo. A spot on the shoulder of the cow in the state emblem was modified into a pig. An investigation has begun into how the computer program was improperly modified to insert the image, Vermont Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito said." READ MORE

Awl pals Tim Sutton and Seth Bomse have been known to make surprisingly watchable short films starring a not-so-good-looking aging person puttering around his apartment. So imagine what they might do with attractive teenagers diving into a glassy Appalachian lake, or hiking through a lush summer forest, or riding bikes in the desert at sunset. People who attend this year's South-by-Southwest Film Festival won't even have to imagine it, as Sutton's first full-length feature film, Pavilion, has been chosen as one the festival's "Emerging Visions" selections, and will have its world premiere in Austin between March 9th and 17th. Seth edited the film, which has an original score by The Sea and Cake's Sam Prekop—who wrote the languid and beautiful "Parasol" for his band's 1995 album Nassau. Pavilion is kind of like that, but as a movie.

"He achieves continuous sperm transfer after having been removed by the aggressive female, or has moved away himself. At the same time, his palp (sexual organ) plugs the female, thereby monopolizing her." READ MORE

Mellifluent Soul Train creator Don Cornelius shot himself to death early this morning at his home in Los Angeles. "Before MTV there was Soul Train, that will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius," said Quincy Jones in a statement to press. "His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched." Above, the first (and reportedly only) episode in which Cornelius himself danced down the famous Soul Train Line.

As hardcore as they seem, we know thatNinja and Yo-Landi from the South African techno-rap have a soft spot for animals. And there are plenty of animals in the video for their new song, "I Fink U Freeky." Unfortunately, since one of those animals is giant python, all the other ones will soon be dead.

So I've spent the last week telling everyone about my favorite new song, "Pushin' Aside, Push It Along," by First Serve, which is two-thirds of De La Soul pretending to be a pair of young, aspiring rappers from Queens. Now comes the next installment in the lead-up to a full-length album which will arrive on April 2: a short video, that tells the story of First Serve's fictional label, Goon Time Records. The animated backgrounds are terrific—like those Hawley Pratt and Fritz Freleng designed for the old "Pink Panther" show.

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New York Times columnist Gail Collins was, as always, highly enjoyable yesterday as she predicted that, come the year 2112, history students would be reading "on their vaporphones" about the precedent set when known philander and serial husband New Gingrich won the Republican primary in super-conservative South Carolina. But her ideas run counter to the conventional thinking about what the world will be like a hundred years from now. The definitive source of future-casting for the year 2112 is, of course, Neil Peart, the (totally sick!) drummer and (philosophically ambitious!) lyricist for the great Canadian prog-metal band, Rush. READ MORE