Lost in translation - Stewart Lee (who he? - Ed) on the German sense of humour. A rather good old article from the Grauniad.

CuriousGeorge: Student loan bothers I have, for the past 4 months, been making monthly payments to Company X, which is a collection agency, for an old student loan with the NY State Higher Ed folks. I have not missed a payment. Today, I get a call from Company Y asking me to set up payments for my student loan. When I say that I'm already making payment with Company X, they say "well, NY State transferred it to us, and we need to set up a new payment plan." Can they do this?

Can Scientists Dance? After watching Simone Recchi's "Dynamical and chemical evolution of blue compact dwarf galaxies", I tend towards NO.

Millions of starlings flock together in Scotland. (embedded video) It's amazing how they move together and the motion of the flock is like water. Seriously.