Starfish Bored with your old desktop picture? Need a good background for a website? Try this free (as in speech and beer) image generator for OS 9, OS X, and Windows. Not only do the images tile seamlessly, you can customize color schemes with different palettes and share seed numbers. Or you can just keep generating random images while contemplating the pretty colors.

Misunderstanding Iraq. According to this article, the US and the new Iraqi government doesn't have a chance. The reason: Saddam understands Iraq....and we don't. [International Herald Tribune printer friendly]

Curious George: Why the light pink background? As I was reading the FAQ, I came to this part of it, discussing monkeyfilter's color scheme. I've been curious why light pink was chosen for the background, and I was really suprised to read that a majority of monkeys prefer that color. But now I suspect that it's supposed to be a different color, like maybe it's supposed to be the same purple Tracy's weblog uses. Is this right?

Koko Calls For The Dentist.

Curious George -- info suck My average internet usage has tripled, then quadrupled in the last few weeks, although the basic way I use my connection hasn't changed and nor have my surfing habits. I don't have a website, (well, I do have a small one, but there's nothing on it), I don't do any filesharing, and all virus definitions are updated (and I'm on a Mac, so there's nothing really current out there anyway). My ISP says that there's a lot of usage going on when I connect. What the hell is going on? Ideas? As it stands, this is costing me money, and I don't like it. Thanks!

Remember the cartoon Smurfs? They were communists, according to this article. It makes sense, in an odd way.

Here's a monkeychallenge: what the hell IS this?
"access is restricted to invited subscribers only. the waiting list is approximately 18-22 months. cost is $50 for a [CD key] and $10 per month to get on the waiting list." For what?

Kitties! Kitties! Kitties!

Hamlet: The Text Adventure Help Hamlet avenge his father's death! Encounter characters from other Shakespearean plays for no good reason! Use the hints because some parts are impossibly hard! All this in amazing, futuristic text-based game play! more inside

International team to monitor presidential election A team of international observers will monitor the presidential election in November, according to the U.S. State Department... ...It will be the first time such a team has been present for a U.S. presidential election...

English poetry by Japanese Students

quantonics.com is a large, thorough site devoted to a subject that is either absurd and schiz more inside

Chick Lit Author round table. So - frivolous froth, or 'valuable social commentary and great literature' ?

Curious, George I have a compact flash card that has four Psion 5mx WP files on it. After adding some files from my PC, the card reads "corrupted" on the Psion, and won't read at all on my PC. Can anyone help me recover the text in the Psion files I know are on there?

American Mavericks for modern-music-loving monkeys. Listen online if you dare! I have a hard time getting used to Suzanne Vega telling me about Milton Babbit.

the manusripts The genius who gave us three laws of motion wrote even more about the Apocalypse and the Whore of Babylon. Eventually, all of his work -- about 10 million words -- will be on the Web

Britain the new Prozac nation? Apparently, significant levels of Prozac has been found in Britain's drinking water. I'm jealous.

Signs of the Apocalypse....well not exactly. Just a bunch of funny church signs. Some intentionally so, others not.

Come and visit Britain's premier seaside resorts

Against the Law? This article makes me wonder if the FBI gets paid per charge brought.