In an effort to understand her students, an anthropology professor performed an ethnography of her students. While the study was originally published under a pseudonym to protect the author's anonymity (the second link gets into the ethics of undercover research a little), the NY Sun outed her as Cathy Small last week, and CNN has confirmed their story. more inside

Finally, we know who would win in a battle betwen an octopus and a shark (Real Video)

<i>When your freight's destroyed</i>, and it don't look good, who you gonna call? Country & McDaniel! Their business is shipping disasters. Neat gallery of foulups, like the Sealand grounding nightmare, an Iraq missile hit on an Airbus freighter, the worst pothole in the world, and what happens with there's a fire on the fireworks freighter. [Bad web design alert -- their huge menus are top-posted on all the pages and you have to scroll past them to get to the content]

Comfort Pets: An Urn Alternative. Just wrong.

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus is not officially on the endangered species lists, but it is at critically low levels for breeding requirements. Whereas in past decades sightings of the tree octopus were common among campers and outdoorsmen, these days you will be lucky if you see one. Something needs to be done, and I think you'll agree that more people need to be made aware of the plight of the tree octopus. more inside

via metachat, the "What Do These Things Have In Common Game", with two unsolved and generally ignored puzzles by a shameless selflinker. #5 and #6 previous topics include Muppets (Beaker, Big Bird, Gonzo, Grover, Scooter), Old Comics (Mutt & Jeff, Li'l Abner, Barney Google, Peanuts, B.C., Blondie) and fast food (Taco BELL, KENTUCKY Fried Chicken, LONG JOHN SILVER's Fish & Chips, Pizza HUT).

You like to think of yourself as a bit different, and you are carried by host-specific mammalian ticks. Results for "which X are you?" type quizzes by flashboy.

You can't say it's a surprise: Artist Mark Chamberlain proves the rumours true. via Cruel Site of the Day. NSFW more inside

Curious George: Obscure Costume Ideas We're having a "Come as your favorite obscure pop culture reference" Halloween party, and I'm looking for some costume ideas. more inside

Cats. In sinks. more inside

Formerly one of the sacred flowers of local Buddhism in Yunnan Collection of rare and interesting species from China, Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam and India. The Musella lasiocarpa is of the longest blooming flowers in the world. It's considered a banana plant from Yunnan and the Himalaya. more inside

Aerial Photographs of Mexico City seen @ Cynical-C Blog

Someone had this bright idea. I'm just waiting for them to make a fly-eater toilet.

Christopher Xavier Brodeur wants to be mayor of New York City. He has some, er, unusual proposals which he intends to enact if elected. Like outlawing four-legged tables. And mandating that all bathroom doors in NYC open outwards. And making organ donation mandatory. [Warning: link contains extremely long rants that may be thoroughly disconnected to reality.]

Lost From Midland. West Texas wishes to reclaim the folks who fled to the bigger cities of Texas, and this is how they are trying to do it. Census facts on Midland. [via The Austinist] more inside

Curious, George: SAS on a mac? Do any monkeys have experience with using the statistical program SAS in osx? Before I go through with loading this and shelling out the dough for Filemaker, I wanted to see if it's worth it. Or is it time for me to switch back? more inside

Buffo is the World's Strongest Clown. Yeah, you *should* be scared! (Warning: the site contains a brief, annoying bit of audio, so turn off the speakers if you're at work or in a computer lab!)

Widdle baby panda needs a widdle baby panda name... We've talked about it some in kitfisto's original panda post, but there's an official process for giving Panda names. However, we monkeys have never been ones to play by the book, so on the first link, you can vote for the hacked name of 'Butterstick'. [via Wonkette] more inside

Curious George: What time is it where you are? more inside

Beavis & Butt-Head return!!!! Maybe I'm just one of them there 90's Gen-X slackers. But news that Beavis and Butthead are going to be on the MTV VMA Awards this weekend and that Beavis And Butt-Head: The Mike Judge Collection Vol. 1 will be released on DVD in November. Uh, huh-huh-huh, cool...