Peter Jackson & New Line WILL make The Hobbit

Curious George: threesomes. What are the top three serious things and the top three idiotic things you wouldn't have never, ever knowed about if it weren't for those gosh darn intertubes? What has all of this time wasting actually yielded? Make 'em linkys if you like. Or not. more inside

Maxim's Ten Best Sidekicks Honoring the Second Banana more inside

galaxy strikes neighboring galaxy with a blast from its hole more inside

The making of Saturday Night Fever. In 1976, producer Robert Stigwood placed a million-dollar bet on a young TV star, signing John Travolta to a three-movie deal. First up, a low-budget production based on a New York magazine article about disco-crazy Italian-American kids in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn: Saturday Night Fever. From Travolta's famous "Stayin' Alive" strut to the mid-filming death of his girlfriend, to three harrowing nights on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, SAM KASHNER has the story of a culture-bending hit, whose music–by a revitalized 60s band called the Bee Gees–became the best-selling soundtrack of its time.

Death Penalty Repealed In New Jersey more inside

Caruso, Melba to release new recordings, overcoming obstacle of being dead. Time capsules buried in the basement of the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, and containing recordings of the two giants, are about to be opened up and made available to the public.

New species of Hideously Ugly Giant Rat found in 'lost world' jungle. "The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. "With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip." Also they found some other less awesome animals, too.

Who Speaks For Earth? The Active v Passive debate in the SETI community. And do we really want to attract the attention of advanced alien civilizations? more inside

The California Golden Overtones. UC-Berkeley all-female a capella group. (YouTube links, or pages with embedded YouTube vids, follow.) Take It to the Limit. In the Still of the Night. Big Yellow Taxi. I Can See Clearly Now.

Irishman hits on 'cure' for psoriasis - the cure consists of ten pints of Guinness and a dunk in the Liffey.

Gamer Jargon Becomes Word Of The Year A word widely used among online gamers has topped an online poll for Word of the Year run by US publishing group Merriam Webster.

The Whale Hunt - more than three thousand photos taken at five minute intervals over a period of nine days, documenting a northern Alaskan community's annual Bowhead harvest. Interesting interface. Via DIMMN, by way of Haddock.

learning to love you more is both a web site and series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. more inside

John Zorn's Masada. John Zorn is a musician and "genius" who's long been part of New York's "downtown music" scene, which is associated with venues like the Knitting Factory. Among his focuses in recent years is Masada, a jazz project whose CDs are released by Zorn's label Tzadik as part of its Radical Jewish Culture series. YouTube links: Gevurah. Karaim. Paran.

A slice of something from 1998. It first showed up here, but it didn't get truly considered. Here is the new fUSION Anomaly. It's all about code and butterflies, Tech Nique, Synaptic Ether, and Entities, and shit. Here's where the web is 1975.

Curious George: Washington, DC Meetup on Tuesday the 18th of December? more inside

Gordo the Barosaurus, standing tall once more. A little photo essay about how a giant Barosaurus was prepared for exhibition in the new digs of the ROM, after being rediscovered in the basement. Only the second one to go on display.

move over dogs in shawls, here's bears in hats

Por for girls, by girls. SO degrading for men. (SFW)