African Tomb assists you in scattering a loved one's ashes in Africa. Also, 3 X PEOPLE WILL EACH RECEIVE AN AFRICAN TOMB GIFT BASKET FILLED WITH AFRICAN GOODIES! Hmmm.

Explosive coin shrinker. Dubious scientific merit and questionable safety standards combine to illustrate the concept of the "shrinking dollar".

First Monday : A peer-reviewed journal on the net about the net.

Remote Islands Made More Remoterer I have excerpted this from "The SMH," an Australian paper. I have provided the link, but it requires a subscription, pardner. more inside

I would've spilled all. He didn't crack in the comfy chair. Time for the Fleetwood Mac Album! more inside

The Skeptic's Dictionary A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions (and how to think critically about them) more inside

Astor Cube: The anatomy of a prank. Completely ripped off from memepool.

Here Y'are: Free Frogurt - Just print this coupon out & run on in to a TCBY (whatever the hell that stands for) store. One free cup of TCBY Low Carb Lovers frozen yogurt. But only one each, remember! Offer expires at the end of January. And no, I do not own a franchise, nor am I being paid for this. It's free, dammit.

The 2005 Bloggies Awards have started to gather nominations. Go forth and nominate thy favorites. more inside

Something fishy about this... If you collected posters to hang on your wall, and all of the posters had a similar theme, what would that theme be? Swimsuit models? Famous athletes? Great movies? more inside

More fun that a barrel full of, you know... Some video from the last LA MoFi Meetup. Enjoy.

Pizza, Beer, and Tracicle. Monkeybashi, #2 and the kidlet are coming to the Bay Area at the end of January. Toss those New Year's Resolutions aside and put the meetup on your calendar. When: Saturday, January 29, 6pm onwards Where: Jupiter in Berkeley (right at the Downtown Berkeley BART station) more inside

Curious George - Patenting an Product Hi everyone. I have what I think is a clever idea to slow speeding cars (I live on a narrow street that people think is a freeway) and even though I know the item could be put together pretty cheaply using existing technology, I am not an engineer. Nonetheless, after polling friends with the idea (after swearing them to a double pinky swear) it does seem to have potential. First off, I was wondering if any of those businesses you see advertising on daytime TV (i.e. "...patent your idea with Inventor's Submission Service...") are legit? I'm guessing probably not. Second, how would I, a smart boy but not a mechanical engineer get something like this patented, and then even more importanly, marketed? I'm not exactly rich, so hiring someone to build it is out of the question. Can one just patent an idea for a product, or do you need to build a working prototype? Thanks. PS- Regarding the legal stuff, I live in California in the USA.

The Nectar of the Gods is under threat of extinction - Pulque, the ancient drink of the pre-Hispanic Mexico favoured by the Aztec elite, is in danger of disappearing from daily use into museums and anthropologist's notebooks. In other South-American & ancient civilization themed mind candy, the first Andes civilisation is being studied. The zenith of the culture was from 3000 to 1800BC. They constructed complex buildings & irrigation systems.

You've seen the ads for Eharmony.com. What they don't tell you is they're a christian based dating site. The founder of eHarmony, Dr. Neil Clark Warren is associated with Focus on the Family, a right wing christian group. Is this some bizarre form of social engineering based on marriage and family?

A yummy Gingerbread CPU. Also on this site: a gingerbread laptop.

Cybersex gone wrong. more inside

Curious George: Volunteering My friends and I have been trying to volunteer to go and give aid to the tsunami victims. Because of the disease risk, the Red Cross is saying they wont send Americans. Are any monkeys aware of an organization we can contact that will? more inside

New Year resolutions; examples and advice. I'm going to stop eating butter (spread on things, I mean).

Burton & Jefferson meet Roger Ebert at a party. PLUS: Burton anchors FOX News (with Jefferson). PLUS PLUS: Burton & Jefferson reminisce. Cartoon Humor with Rude Words & Ironic non-political correctness. more inside