Curious George: Message board elitism. I am curious whether you all have had experiences with elitism and "inner circles" within any online communities. more inside

The Icelandic Phallological Museum is probably the only museum in the world to contain a collection of phallic specimens belonging to all the various types of mammal found in a single country. [possibly NSFW] more inside

An android recreation of Philip K Dick is appearing at nextfest.

Nerds make better lovers. But we knew this already. If you don't feel like dropping by your local chess tournament, particle accelerator lab or Dungeons and Dragons game to find your own hawt geek companion, you can do so online (surprise!) at sites such as Geek 2 Geek and Star Trek Dating. [via craigblog]

A trail of weird footprints found next to a creek, south of Broome (Australia), have folks wondering what beastie made them. Is it a cat, a Yowie (the Australian Yeti) a Bunyip (the Australian, er.. swamp thing), a bird-like thingie or just a fucking big dog? In other Oz Crypto news, misplaced big cats & Tasmanian Tigers are apparently 'out there'. more inside

Vote For the Greatest American The History Channel is running a special on 'The Greatest American'. One of the five nominees is Reagan. Get the word out so we can cast votes for the other four choices out there. Washington, Franklin, Lincoln and Martin Luther King. Who do you think should have been nominated for 'greatest american' that wasn't on the list?

Letters from Nicky to Sunny. Or, if you want to be stuffy about it, from Tsar Nicholas II to his wife Alexandra, written between September 1914 and March 1917. With historical notes. more inside

A new poem from Sappho . Its publication adds greatly to the sadly little that has survived from the oeuvre of thegreat poet of Lesbos. The TLS publishes Dr. Martin West's translation.

Help a monkey out Yes, this is a self link. I don't know if you all remember the posts that I did about this place in the past, but I am part of an ad-hock commitee to save, Irv's, a local hamburger stand here in West Hollywood. more inside

Commuter Car Choice I am in the market for a commuter car later this year and want to know people's personal experience with some of the cars I am considering. more inside

Art of Science This spring we asked the Princeton University community to submit imagery produced in the course of research or incorporating tools and concepts from science.