of socks and string theory This person oughtta be a Monkey. Maybe already is? Socks seem to really enjoy it being united by their necks, don't they? It is as if their union created a model for our multidimensional universe. Hope he's not involved in foot hoodoo

Grover - the monster behind the Myth - To millions of children throughout the world in the seventies and eighties, Grover was a funny, cuddly and ultimately loveable fuzzy blue monster from Sesame Street. But what many of us didn't see behind that brave exterior was a monster cowering in the face of his own insecurities, a monster so unsure of himself he wouldn't even watch his own performances, and a monster who ultimately allowed his own weaknesses to overcome him and nearly ruin his career. Grover is bitter. more inside

Counting Words. What's the most popular word in the English langauge? A flash project.

Who's doing it most? And what in particular? Updated sex stats from Nationmaster, 'where stats come alive'

Curious George: The Kettle. Do you give? The Salvation Army has begun its annual Christmas kettle fundraising drive across the US. Some gay-rights advocates protest the organization for their refusal to grant benefits to same-sex partners. (Others, with presumably less political motivations, have more direct methods.) more inside

We all need some compensation

Top 1000 OCLC Research has compiled a list of the top 1000 titles owned by member libraries -- the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the

The Fridge (via here, and previously mentioned here) is an on-line version of Magnetic Letters (without the collaborative interference). What I like about it is the ability to import text from a webpage to create your own word set. Here's what I did with the MonkeyFilter 'Recent Comments' sidebar.

Glencannon A wee smattering of Guy Gilpatric

Curious George's Mom: Do any monkeys have experience with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, also known as CLL? Just found out my mom has it. She's asymptomatic now, it was detected early in a routine blood test. So we're optimistic.

A little alpha male, in-your-face, shamelessly good, toxic marketing. Check this site out. The Flash application is hypnotic, the animation wonderful, and the colors? I want to eat them. Wonder if I can hire these guys to animate my Uncle Leon--he's been dead for years. more inside

I can't stop laughing at this.

The O'Canada Factor Since today Canadians can watch Fox News too. Bill O'Reilly of The O'Reilly Factor, as a special treat to his newly found Canadian audience, devotes his entire show to Canada and even interviews himself. "Here at The Factor, we've talked about boycotting Canada in the past. Think this is an empty threat? Ask France. Face it; Canada is utterly dependent on America for its economic well being. Last time I checked, Americans make 40 million visits to Canada a year. We spend upwards of $10 billion and this doesn't even include all the hidden taxes those communists levy on us as we're leaving their land of igloos and left-wing defeatism." Read the transcript. [registration required. use regfree@fastchevy.com/regfree]

De-romancing the stone. Mark Vadon of Blue Nile wants to turn diamonds into pork bellies. Tiffany's hates him. more inside

Koders - Source Code Search Engine - So instead of posting something about ghosts, weird animals or supernatural dreams, I decided to post this script search engine. I don't use this stuff, but I'm sure some Monkeys do. This could save hours working out problems & be very useful. It allows devs to easily search & browse source code in thousands of projects hosted at hundreds of open source repositories. more inside

Drainspotting

Ripoff Reports. Use a search query for your hometown and see which companies have complaints stacked up against them. Pretty neat consumer advocacy site, especially for those unfortunates who have a pro-biz local BBB that sucks.

True? True !

Bullfrogs ate my Budgie... Earwigs, f'n Zebra mussels, 'new' LadyBugs, those friggin' walking fish from Michigan, and now Giant Killer Bullfrogs ?! When will the UN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THESE ROGUES ?! Commisioner Gordon, get me Paul Martin and Bono on line one!

What's first on my Christmas wish list?