Terry Pratchett, there's light at the end of the tunnel.

It's stock-take time at British Zoos. Some animals appear to be co-operating. More pics.

I CAN HAZ HALP PLZ? At last, a relevant translation.

Apparently Mozart won't actually make your child smarter, says this email (Snopes is mute on this particular email; here's the Wikipedia page on the Mozart Effect), but here are some alternative composers parents may wish to try, for varying effects. (Thanks to our own Pallas Athena for the laugh.)

Monkey Portraits: Allegories of Brand Loyalty, by Laurie Hogin. [Via Right Some Good.]

Top Secret Audio: Democrats Meet Republicans at NH Debate.

Port shimmering: a new way to hide valuable ports in plain sight shimmer is a pair of small programs (a client and a server) that provide an alternative to port knocking program such as tumbler and are used to hide a valuable port (such as a hidden web server or SSH) on a public IP address. more inside

Fill-in the Blank Apology Form Thingy seen at Catercorner Bungits more inside

I abound in lizards. Thoughts on the difficulty of learning Arabic and cultural misunderstandings. more inside

io9 The new(ish) sci-fi blog from the Gawker stable. For all your Dr Who, Star Trek, Batman, Cloverfield etc gossip. Plus cheesecake Imperial recruitment posters.

Nick Brandt depicts the animals of East Africa with an intimacy and artistry unmatched by other photographers who choose wildlife as their subject. Wildlife photography has become a holiday and adventure cliche: have telephoto lens, will snap view up rhino's nostril -- so uninteresting, so blah. And then there's Nick Brandt. Brandt eschews the telephoto lens in favor of patience combined with a rare courage, determination and an artist's eye to photograph wildlife. The results are animals so accustomed to Brandt's presence and so untroubled by him that his pictures are breathtakingly beautiful and touching in their honesty and emotion.

Safety Gear for Small Animals FLASH interface & I just threw my back ooch ouch

Burning a man's eyes with lime. The NY Public Library has scans of an 1804 book from China that shows 22 engravings of common punishment methods of the day. more inside

The 1908 New York to Paris automobile race's centenary this year will be marked by a 2008 version. more inside

Polynesian Chickens in Chile Eggheads have long assumed the Spaniards introduced chickens to the New World. But radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis now suggest that the Polynesians first brought chickens to South America.

What I learned about network television at Dateline NBC. By John Hockenberry, who was the first host of NPR's Talk of the Nation and is now a Distinguished Fellow at the MIT Media Lab.

What Kucinich Saw: Witnesses Describe Close Encounter. In a Democratic presidential debate in late October, Mr. Kucinich acknowledged seeing something airborne that he couldn't identify and then defused the issue with a joke about opening a campaign office in Roswell, N.M., the capital of unexplained sightings. Since then, the long-shot candidate has refused to elaborate on the experience.

I wish I was smarter 30 seconds ago A fun quick flash game where you . . well, you'll figure it out. One of you will, anyway. via KerfluffleFilter

That's OK, it's a rental.

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