The Penny Arcade Remix Project. An English teacher in Japan, with three idle weeks left in the school year, has his students create their own Penny Arcade strips, with hilarious results. more inside

Largest shipment of Sikh holy scriptures makes it to Toronto. The scriptures, called Saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, are only printed at one temple in India and are regarded by the faithful as living--literally, not in the figurative sense. Therefore, they can't fly in baggage.

Brokeback Mountain Although Gus Van Sant was originally slated to direct it after his success with Good Will Hunting, and the script has bounced around Hollywood for years, it seems that the movie, based on an amazing Annie Proulx short-story, will finally be made. The tragic story follows the lives of two Wyoming sheepherders and will most likely star Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. I was blown away when I read the short story (although be warned, there are some fairly explicit scenes), but the question remains: is Hollywood/America ready for the unapologetic love story of two gay cowboys?
[Pls, be gentle. My first post]

Curious, George: Basset Hounds We're looking into buying a puppy as a family pet and our research seems to point to a Basset Hound as a good match for our family. I'm curious as to your experience with Bassets...[more inside]

Curious, George: I want to blog and I would like some startup advice. more inside

Which columnist are you? Always wondered which NYT columnist you could stand in for? more inside

Today in Kathmandu was the fourth day of large pro-democracy protests demanding the reinstatement of parliament, which was suspended by the king a year and a half ago. At least 140 were injured. more inside

It's not what you say, but how you say it.
Two great linguistic-geek websites, both courtesy of Penny Arcade, of all places:
The Harvard University Dialect Map Survey "What do you call the big clumps of dust that gather under furniture and in corners?" and The Speech Accent Archive "Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station."

Gig posters. more inside

Iraq War Has Helped Spread bin Laden's Message more inside

Colleges begin offering blogging classes to freshmen. A unique approach to getting college students to write expressive, self-biographical papers, My Blog, Myself is a Live Journal based intro course offered by Haverford College from Doug Davis who created the course and posted about it in his blog.

Letter grades for all the flags of the world. "Some countries have clearly taken care in the choice of colours, layout, and design." more inside

A work of art or a harbinger of violence? (SF Gate) A student is expelled and his teacher fired over a story he wrote for her class detailing the grisly adventures of a serial killer. Reminds me tangentially of this adventure involving horror author Gary Braunbeck and his nephew's elementary school. more inside

Get rid of ignorance This site's been linked before, but never featured. For getting educated on anything under the sun. Don't know something, go ahead, ask a question.

"Bremer has destroyed my country" Guardian article about how not to occupy a country. Shut down the newspapers. Enfore the law arbitrarily or in a half-assed way. Allow corruption. Don't supply the hospitals. You get the picture. more inside

Shroud of Turin: More fodder for the debate. I thought this seemed like a good Sunday post. Apparently the sewing style "belongs firmly to a style seen in the first century AD or before." Your call.

Algiers: The Right Bank. A taste of a historic New Orleans neighbourhood through old photographs.

Curious, George: What is a papasan? Does the term "papasan" refer to the style of rattan/wicker furniture, or just the familiar round chair with padded cushion? more inside

Metal Baby. (Flash, needs sound).

Whose Mind is it Anyway? more inside