Celebrity Skin and Body Fluids. "Celebrity Skin was formed in 2003 by an anonymous collective of former Hollywood personal assistants" ... "All our specimens are tested by experienced body-fluid identification technicians at the Allamas Biological Research Facility in Greeley Colorado and cross-referenced hospital birth records and blood analysis from the Red Cross." Parody? Scam? Or just more proof that our society is sick, sick, sick?

My new hero. So this high school student was arrested at his own prom for wearing a prom dress, see. And a wig, and a corsage, and his mom's purse, too. He's a straight boy, but when his gay friend was dateless for the prom, he agreed to go. But, he decided it would cause fewer questions if he went in drag. "I looked like Marilyn Monroe," said the member of the track, ski and powerlifting teams. Unfortunately, although the school was fine with two male students going together, they didn't seem to go for the prom dress bit. Now, the poor boy can't compete for the pole vaulting record! gawd, truth is always stranger than fiction

The married man pays up-front for sex; she grants him a specified amount of time; if she gets pregnant, it's agreed that she will get an abortion. It's religiously sanctioned and there is paperwork involved. Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? She is in.........Iraq? more inside

No more litter box Your cat can be trained to use the toilet like a normal human being. Check out Popgadget blog for other random gadgets. more inside

Cornell researchers build a robot that can reproduce "Admittedly the machine is just a proof of concept -- it performs no useful function except to self-replicate -- but the basic principle could be extended to create robots that could replicate or at least repair themselves while working in space or in hazardous environments, according to Hod Lipson, ... in whose lab the robots were built and tested."

Put down that Nalgene! A recent study[pdf] suggests that a chemical commonly used in polycarbonate plastic containers may raise the risk of prostate cancer in humans. California is considering banning its use in baby bottles, and the plastic industry (which maintains that it is safe) has set up a website to educate the public about Bisphenol-A. Is this a real concern, or just a bogus chemical scare?

May 16-20 is Bike to Work Week Next week is Bike to Work week in the US. Are you monkey enough? (If not, no sweat, but check this out to see what may befall you otherwise!) more inside

Excellent debate on the Gender/Science issue Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke have the deepest clearest discussion I've read on the issue.

The Petrol Crime Bureau is on the lookout for 4x4s. [Quicktime]

Curious George - Tiger, Mac's new operating system So, is it worth shelling out $100? I know I am going to have to upgrade sooner as Final Cut Pro 5.0 will require the new operating system, but does it deserve all the hoopla?

Log Homes for Us. We are a unique log home company that caters to the needs of the Gay and the Lesbian community as well as their friends and family.

Get Outfoxed! There are over 8 billion web pages. Most of them suck. Outfoxed uses your network of trusted friends and experts to help you find the good stuff and avoid the bad. more inside

Omnipelagos lets you find some KevinBaconesque connection between two different entitities, whereas Grokker presents search results graphically under topics, with mouseover descriptions and the ability (show tools, bottom left, on search result page) to define date and yahoo search ranking. I'm not sure of the utility value, but they are fun to play around with. via

100 pieces of art left on the beach in Nova Scotia. Anyone live out that way? Might be worth grabbing one if they haven't all gone.

Curious, George: How to convert VHS into DVD/MPEG?? I had a few seconds of lime light on ABC news last month. The news station gave me a copy on a VHS tape. I don't own a VHS player, but I can borrow one. My laptop has a DVD burner. I'd like to send a copy to my grandma. Can anyone help me??

The 'act making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief' includes the real-id. Monkeys, this is serious. The US senate passed what is basically a spending act for Iraq that included a rider for the new real-id, which is a national id card, which will be required to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service. Use google news to understand what this means or get real paranoid. more inside

Worst Jobs in (British) History

Mind your manners! A (rather Pythonesque) game on Victorian etiquette. [flash] And other interesting games from the McCord Museum of Canadian History.

"Curious, George: Browser popups in dsl" I have had dsl for a week and I have this problem of a new brower window popping up pretty regularly with the Mozilla homepage on it. I use Firefox and just updated to the new version but it keeps happening. Qwest has never heard of this prob. Any ideas? Thanks.

Celebrity Blog "The Huffington Post", Day 2 After our step-sister site thoroughly trashed the "next big thing in blogging", there are signs that, less than 48 hours in, "The Huffy" (a nickname I take full credit for) is showing signs of either (A) getting a sense of humor or (B) jumping the shark. more inside