Germany backs bigger brothels to fight World Cup sex explosion. The event's organisers are expecting at least 40,000 prostitutes to descend on Germany from throughout Europe to meet demand.

"Holla Back" blog. Holla Back NYC empowers New Yorkers to Holla Back at street harassers. Whether you're commuting, lunching, partying, dancing, walking, chilling, drinking, or sunning, you have the right to feel safe, confident, and sexy, without being the object of some dickwad's fantasy.

Can quantum physics explain the paranormal? Short answer: No.

Is this boy a new buddha? And here's another take on the story.

Curious, George: Keeping up with the Joneses What's the most egregious example of a time when you purchased something mainly to remain at the same social-status level as your neighbors or peers? What's the most egregious example of the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses phenomemon that you've ever heard of?

Inside Hollywood's hottest cult: The Kabbalah Chronicles. Madonna, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Sandra Bernhard, and other celebrities are helping one marketing-savvy religious leader's version of Kabbalah become the new Scientology.

Curious, George: Professional blogging pay rates. I've got a chance to get paid to write a blog for a growing poker website. Thing is, I have no idea how much I should charge for my services. How much do professional bloggers get paid? How much should I ask for, given that this gig would probably take about 10 hours a week? Would I be wise to take less cash upfront and get paid a share of the blog's revenue, or by pageviews/hits? more inside

An Exploratory Study of the Influence of Depression and Anxiety. This is an investigation into behavioural patterns behind those who entertain the idea of going missing. The purpose of the research is to better inform health and community services of this behavioural aspect of those with specific mood disorders....This study is open to anyone who has suffered from, or is currently suffering from, depression or anxiety.

Curious, George: How do you think history will describe our era? Will the dominant narrative describe our era as The dawning of the Chinese Era, or America: the building of an empire, or The decline of American dominance, or The global-warming tipping point, or The war between militant Islam and the West, or The corporatization of life around the globe, or The creation of two global economic classes, or The spread of democracy, or Sowing the seeds of political revolution, or Countdown to the Singularity, or The last days leading up to the Rapture, or The human experiment is a failure, Remulac. Set a course for our home galaxy!, or something else altogether?

The threat -- avian flu. The Bush response. Reaction to the Bush response.

Feral flowers. This rare wildflower landscape portfolio represents a 19-year historical documentation of a phenomenon in the Californian deserts known as "carpet blooms". A surreal display of flowers on such a scale and magnitude not seen anywhere else on earth.

Hurricane Rita approaches. Texas Governor Rick Perry has urged people in the storm's way not to leave it too late to try to escape. "Based on planning exercises and analysis, most coastal areas in Texas take 33 hours to fully evacuate. Coastal Texans should not wait until late Thursday or early Friday to leave." The latest official warning from the National Hurricane Center. Landing-point probabilities.

Eugene Mirman. Eugene Mirman videos (try "Art Video", .mov file, possibly NSFW). Eugene Mirman's blog. Eugene Mirman fields a couple of calls from some Christians who choose to overlook the whole “love, compassion and tolerance” side of that crazy book thing. "Eugene Mirman and David Cross Get Wasted, Discuss Indie Rock."

A.G. Rizzoli. Inspired by this FPP, I'm hereby turning you on to the artwork of this Californian, the son of Italian immigrants and a lifelong celibate, who worked by day as a lowly draftsman, but in his spare time experienced mystical visions and created architectural renderings of ornate imaginary buildings. I discovered Rizzoli at a show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Bar code art. New to me; apologies if not new to you.

What is happiness? Research shows that happy people are healthier and live longer. But what makes for happiness? It isn't intelligence. Nor is it good health. Having money doesn't make one happy. It may be that by our nature we are better designed for the pursuit of happiness than for the attainment of it. more inside

The Curse of Tom Wolfe: What Went Wrong for the Magazine Story. I'm trying to break into magazine writing, and as I'm wont to do when I'm trying something new, I'm reading lots about the topic. In the process, I just came across this, and found it interesting (and dismaying). more inside

When it comes to winning or even making the shortlist of prizes in fiction, poetry, art, architecture and music, women fare poorly. Why? Are professional women artists less talented than their male colleagues or are women simply being denied equal opportunity? more inside

The American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes of all time. The winner: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Watching TV Makes You Smarter. (From the Sunday New York Times Magazine.) Adapted from Steven Johnson's soon-to-be-published book ''Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter.''