Critiquing the critics NYCFilter: "Everyone’s a critic, but some professional reviewers have the power to shape NYC culture—and for the first time, these tastemakers have been rated by the artists and industry insiders who know them best." more inside

Call that a knife? The new Swiss Army knife contains 85 devices, weighs 2lb and costs nearly £500. But can you actually use it for anything?

Fun With Hirsuitism Reminded me of those Chiapets... Write message on a hairy back! Kinda makes me think of an angora bunny, and then pause for a moment and wonder if anyone's ever spun and knit human hair...

Carve that critter! There are many delicate bits about a calf's head, and when young, perfectly white, fat and well dressed, half a head is a genteel dish, if a small one. more inside

A Rakish History of Men's Wear at the NYPL The intriguing story of how menswear swung between ostentation and restraint until the early modern era. more inside

St Nicholas' feast day was yesterday. Hope you had a good one. more inside

Bactrian gold. Feared lost when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the 21,000 pieces were discovered safe inside a vault of the Afghanistan bank protected by a key fragment purposefully broken off in the lock. A sample of the collection is currently on display in Paris.

Farts spark emergency landing

Dog poo as artistic statement. Via jafproject. more inside

The Hitch explains it all for you: Why women aren't funny edition Taking time out from his usual defenses of the Bush administration's foreign policy (but let us not speak of that!) and his attacks of Mother Teresa, professional contrarian and alcomaholic Christopher Hitchens lays out the facts on why the ladies are deficient in teh funny.

New Poet Laureate for Canada. John Steffler fills the post.

Democrats hate families? Next year, members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m. Friday, Hoyer said. "Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says." Work Monday through Friday? OMG WTF?! more inside

OR-Live. Live and recorded webcasts of surgery. Gasp at the Brain tumour resection, swoon at the hip replacement, tune in this afternoon for the Robotic Prostatectomy.

Dr Ambedkar , champion of the Dalits (untouchables) and creator of the Indian Constitution, died 50 years ago on Thursday. There are tensions as the day approaches. more inside

Carbon Offsets. Sure they are critised as enviro indulgences, an easy out for rich western polluters and governments alike. But then again, they are for real. New offset organizations are popping up all the time, so it pays to do some reseach before chosing your provider.

Goodsearch.com Yahoo-powered search engine that gives to charity when you search with it. (Via) more inside

WTFWJDFAKB?

Econ 101 at the U. of Chicago. Conservatives have long critiqued academia for the ways professors use their position to indoctrinate students with left-wing ideology, but the left has largely ignored the political impact of the way people learn economics, though its influence is likely far more profound. So in order to find out just what students learn when they learn economics, I headed down to Hyde Park, where the University generously let me enroll in “Principles of Macroeconomics” for a quarter. Good article. more inside

hheh-heh, hheh-heh, you said ...

Attack of the clones Dutch artist Bert Simons, suffering from a mid-life crisis, decided to clone himself to become immortal. By means of state-of-the-art computer multiplication techniques he found a way for you to build your own Bert clone! (1.2 MB PDF) He is currently in the process to clone a female specimen. (NSFW: cardboard nudity) [via]