The King of the Dutar. The Dutar is a two stringed lute found in Central Asia. Meet Abdurehim Heyit. Be sure to notice the track for downloading.

Brel's boat. On February 28th, 1974, Jacques Brel buys the yacht Askoy II, and in July, sails from Antwerp. After some detours, medical and otherwise, he reaches Hiva Oa in November, 1975. After some detours of her own, the Askoy II now rusts away on a New Zealand beach. more inside

Pistol Shrimp! A shrimp with the ability to stun prey via a super laser claw. Or something. (embedded YouTube video) via linkfilter

No more lab monkeys The U.S. National Institutes of Health, which supports a variety of biomedical studies using animals, will stop breeding government-owned chimpanzees for research - a step animal rights advocates lauded on Thursday

"Woman Goes Bananas After Pet Monkey Is Taken"

Shoes. Old shoes. Bespoke shoes. Shoes for cat lovers.

LOLPREZIDENTZ! more inside

SUV Sales are Up. The bigger the guzzler, the better the numbers. Sales of GMC's Yukon XL were up a whopping 72 percent last month, and the totals for its Chevrolet sister, the Suburban, rose 38 percent. Topping off the tank on either one can cost as much as $120. via SUVfilter

American Idol Shocker! Sanjaya was a fraud!!!ONE!!11eleven!!1

A German zoo has hired a local clown to entertain their monkeys. The poor chaps were bored with poo-flinging and banana-eating, and what with the series finale of "Gilmore Girls" being over and all that, they needed something to perk them up a bit.

Need a hug? Amma Tour is coming near you soon! The "Mother of all Huggers", Amma, gives hugs (not drugs) in her Darshan ceremonies. Who needs a neti pot anyways... more inside

Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest - quite a collection. The visual illusion community includes visual scientists, ophthalmologists, neurologists, and visual artists that use a variety of methods to help discover the neural underpinnings of visual illusory perception. First place went to The Leaning Tower Illusion, submitted by McGill University. *preen* Via FmH

Shark Virgin Birth confirmed. A Bonnethead shark has given birth by parthenogenesis. It's not the first time for sharks, a Bamboo shark has done this before.

The Skip

The Secret History of the Potato Awww baby . . I love the sexy, sexy subjects of history and the sensual hot-buttered passion of the potato. Also, it's interesting. 'Cause taters is good eatin'. see also. via linkfi more inside

UAE Builds New Deathstar Convention Center

A photo essay showing the aftermath of the Chernobyl Incident. [Flash VIA Slate] Here are disturbing and hopeful pictures of Belorussian children in asylums, orphanages and hospitals. Here catatonia, terror, cancer and deformity coalesce in playground laughter. Here are their distraught, melancholic and grief-wracked parents and the nurses that care for them. While the narrative borders on that sort of armchair ego-pith that normally brings out the misanthropist in me, the naked humanity presented overpowered the man behind the camera and brought tears to my eyes. WARNING: Many of these pictures show deformed children.

A book a fortnight - in which award-winning Yann Martel (Life of Pi) sends Canada's Prime Minister suggested volumes to read, along with quite fascinating letters. The response from Mr. Harper has been underwhelming.

Flickrvision : Real-time(approx) flickr images shown on a google map of the posters location. It's kind of relaxing. (Though you do need a decent connection.)

Pirates! Scans of all sorts of goodly resources. Anyway, can't stop, off to ride the monk.