Curious, George: Professional blogging pay rates. I've got a chance to get paid to write a blog for a growing poker website. Thing is, I have no idea how much I should charge for my services. How much do professional bloggers get paid? How much should I ask for, given that this gig would probably take about 10 hours a week? Would I be wise to take less cash upfront and get paid a share of the blog's revenue, or by pageviews/hits? more inside

Arrest warrant issued for DeLay Pardon my NewsFilter, but this was interesting to read. DeLay, until recently speaker of the U.S. House, is accused of laundering money to contribute to other Republican campaigns. DeLay's defense says the prosecution is politically motivated. more inside

The Northern Irish psyche is "not equipped to handle the 24-hour availability of alcohol"

How not to parent. I'm still new at this parent thing. But even I know better than these people. Just love the guy who called to report his car missing.

Just plain odd. (NSFW)

Chimp Kicks Smoking Habit A 27-year-old chimpanzee in a Chinese zoo quits her 16-year smoking habit.

PeltierBeer While drinking certain dark beers in the sun, I came to think about how to keep the beer cold until I finished it. Normally this isn't a big problem as I usually finish them before they get warm, but on really hot days this can be a problem. Having some hardware lying around in my apartment, I decided to build something that could keep the beer cool. Read on to see how I made my own PeltierBeer. more inside

Hurricane Wilma is now the strongest in history, clocking in at 882 millibars, though it would have to dip below 870 to beat the strongest typhoon [PDF]. Also we've run out of storm names for 2005, and are to start on the Greek alphabet. What a bizarre season.

EFF have cracked the code in printers which tracks you. The Secret Service has admitted they encode data into pages produced by some colour laser printers in order to track counterfeiters and others, however the data stored in the code was not known prior to EFF's discovery.

Curious George: Medical monkey! I want to get a very real and serious summary of human biology and the medical profession. What television shows/documentaries/books can you recommend? (I am used to covering a lot of material very quickly) more inside

Curious George: I Want Turquoise Highlights! Bestest cheapest place in Vancouver to give my dark brown hair light greeny-turquoise highlight? Or advice from the do-it-yourselfer?

"I Did Not Know That"...step-by-step instructions on how to do unusual things. Inspired by the cat restraint post, I found out how to restrain a camel. Then I wondered what other instructions there are out there for odd things you had no idea there'd be instructions for.

Penny-Arcade v. Jack Thompson FIGHT!! The synopsis: Annoying anti-video-game lawyer Jack Thompson offers to donate 10,000$ to charity if a someone develops a violent game about killing video game developers based on his idea. Gabe of Penny Arcade e-mails Jack to tell him about the Child's Play charity drive in which gamers donated over a half million dollars to children's hospitals. Jack calls Gabe and yells at him. Then things get weird... more inside

Curious George: Am I Being Coerced? Is my company's CEO just being a go-getter in his charitable fundraising, or is he using his position of power in a coercive and possibly illegal way? Legal monkeys, please hope me. more inside

Google-Kai is the name of our SON. Brave new world

The Terror Threat Level Has Nothing to do whatsoever with the Cheney/Rove Headlines. Nope.

Commercials of Harry Egipt! Treasures [?] from Estonia circa the 80's. Everything from the truly bizarre to social propaganda and in between... [.mpg or .wmv files, a couple of which contain nudity, non-English site] more inside

Sociable, George: One more time! more inside

Ba Jin dies. Literary giant and one of the last direct links to the anarchist movement in early 20^th century China, Ba Jin (a.k.a 李芾甘, Pa Chin) is perhaps best remembered for his trilogy 'Family ". When the Snow Melted.

Curious Poop Monkeys: Help me toilet train my too-smart-for-his-own-britches 3 1/2 yr old. more inside