A dearth of female A&R types. "Women buy roughly half of all CDs sold...and most radio formats target women as their primary audience. Yet...no woman runs the mainstream music A&R department at any major record label. Over the last decade, only two women have helmed A&R pop departments at major labels."

'Drunken' bishop faces battle to save his job The bishop reportedly staggered home from a function at the Irish embassy on Tuesday night, climbed into the back of a stranger's Mercedes, and started throwing an infant's toys out of the vehicle. Asked to explain himself, he is claimed to have said: "I'm the Bishop of Southwark. It's what I do."

Bats navigate using the Earth's Magnetic Field - Many animals, such as homing pigeons & other birds such as even the humble Chook, newts (a newt?), trout & turtles use magnetic fields for orientation. Now we know (at least some) bats do, too. more inside

Book List more inside

Verizon CSRs confused by math(s) [embedded MP3 audio] George (no relation to Curious) recently had it out with Verizon over his internet bill; they claimed that quoting the price of 0.002 cents per kilobyte of data transfer was the same as billing for 0.002 dollars per KB. He disagreed, and taped the phone conversation to make sure he wasn't the only one. more inside

Pop Culture Translator "I'm capable. Of preparing you. For sex. Just let me be dad. You can be mom." Fifty Cent, Ozzy Osbourne, Gollum, and even Irish Mickey deciphered at last. [video clips with sound]

Diggingest Dog is Archaeologist - finds Neolithic stone axe, retrieves it, drops it on owner's foot.

BlackBerry Orphans - "The growing use of email gadgets is spawning a generation of resentful children. A look at furtive thumb-typers, the signs of compulsive use and how kids are fighting back." more inside

Torn Posters

Ask Metafilter on NPR (scroll to bottom)

Here we go ....a smoke crescent hangs over eastern Victoria. This may be the worst weekend ever. more inside

Gifts to keep on giving. The ever-informative sex columnist (and all-round bon vivant) Sasha Van Bon Bon presents her guide to Christmas giving. Toys, graphic novels, and charitable gifts to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. [Prolly NSFW][Not the Stephen Lewis Foundation, the other stuff.]

BBC sez Indian men have tiny dicks. more inside

Toys from Eaton's in the catalogues of the now defunct Canadian department store. more inside

What Statistics on Home Sales aren't telling us. ...Another house, just steps from Naples Bay, received a high bid of $880,000, compared with $1.35 million a year earlier. On average, the bids suggested that the houses at the auction had lost about 25 percent of their value since 2005 . Is this the first sighting of the long-predicted and discussed collapse of the bubble?

Camille advises Britney Camille Paglia (who like Hitchens, is a bit past the peak of her career), weighs in on Britney Spears and how all of her recent twat flashing for the camera is "degrading the entire pro-sex wing of feminism". In Us magazine. more inside

Historigore! Mel Gibson creates a new film genre. "Within the first five minutes of the movie, someone eats a testicle. At the time, this graphic display was shocking and repulsive (Gibson employs very able FX people), but somewhere after the heart chewing and around the second beheading, I longed for the halcyon days of the testicle appetizer. We were so young then. " Somedays I just love the CBC.

Distortrait is where famous people come daily for a makeover.

Actual note produced by highschool girls found in arizona cafeteria. more inside

Ripoff-ee or ripoff-er? What is the rental market in your neighbourhood? Are you paying too much? Charging too little? This handy tool will tell you how you compare!! (US, Canada, and London only.) No claim made for the accuracy of this website!