What the bagel man saw - An economist gave up his job to sell bagels to companies on the honor system and tracked all the data. "By measuring the money collected against the bagels taken, he could tell, down to the penny, just how honest his customers were. Did they steal from him? If so, what were the characteristics of a company that stole versus a company that did not? Under what circumstances did people tend to steal more, or less?" (NYT, Reg inside) more inside

Read books online for free - Read Print is a free online library that "offers thousands of free books for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast." Authors include George Orwell, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, and many many more. This makes me very, very happy. more inside

Hassle the Hoff - "Rap legend Ice-T is risking his massive reputation on his latest recruit - middle-aged former beach bum David Hasselhoff.The original gangsta believes he can turn the ex-Baywatch star into hip hop’s next big thing.Ice and Hasselhoff, 51, are neighbours in Los Angeles and have struck up a close friendship." Someone please tell me it's not a joke. Because that would be awesome. [/W. Hung afficianado]

2004 Editors’ Awards for Online Excellence - The Morning News has come out with a list of their editors' favorites for 2004. There are some great sites listed that are worth checking out. And guess what? A fellow monkey made their list. Go forksclovetofu!

Protect your banana - This is a post of poo, but I really just had to. Carry on. more inside

In Passing ... This is a great little blog that documents conversations heard in passing. "We need a dolphin with opposable thumbs." "The combination of a dolphin and a monkey should do it, then." "Hell of a love child." "You have not been trained to think that way, so you don't. But I see it." --Two guys who appear to be doing more drinking than eating at the hotel restaurant.  

Open source insurance - There's an interesting article on Salon.com today about how the open source community is dealing with SCO legal attacks -- a new company has sprung up to sell insurance for companies that use Linux to cover the costs of legal battles should they arise. Even more interesting is how the principles of open source are being used to mount the defense.

MonkeyFilter: The Tagline I'm not sure why I did it, but I cataloged all of the taglines (that I found--94 of them) in comment threads here at MoFi. I laughed my bum off and I decided to share. Votes for a random tagline generator on the main page?? more inside

Spammer asshats I just got spammed at the (unique) address I provided on my MoFi user page. I guess it's time to put up a dummy address. more inside

Tech support haikus - "Last January, the ISP I used to work for gave us an ultimatum-- in order to move customers through the phone que faster, (never mind that the average wait time was over 45 minutes) we were all to limit our after call notes to three lines or less." Can't get to newsgroup alt.binaries.sex.star-trek Sad little monkey. more inside

The power of databases - Reason, a libertarian magazine, decides to show what databases can do by individualzing each cover for subscribers with a satellite photo of their house. (NY Times link) via kottke.org

Curious, George Curious, George - Help! I have a friend who's going through a really, really rough time right now and I want to send her a bunch of links that will make her laugh. She has a twisted, sarcastic sense of humor (the and WHEE! squirrel is a favorite). I want to send this out today or tomorrow, so I'd appreciate if you guys could help me out. Thanks! more inside

Curious, George - Geeky question: I'd like Windows something differently and I need some help. more inside

Self-policing rehash - Things have been a little different around here for a week or so, do we need a little reality check? more inside

Parents attack bathroom policy - Some middle school students here are learning to shun soft drinks, water and other liquids during school hours for fear their consumption will lead to an urgent need to answer nature's call. Under a new policy at the Lawrence Middle School, the seventh- and eighth-graders are allowed to leave class for the bathroom a maximum of 15 times a month.

Civil disobedience in San Francisco - In an open challenge to California law, city authorities officiated at the marriages of at least eight same-sex couples Thursday and issued about a dozen more marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. more inside

Higher Primates Can Program After VB.NET Training - The finding have implications for the entire software industry, with some scientists predicting routine programming such as maintenance and report writing will be performed by teams of primates within 10 years. more inside

All your friends are doing it. Don't you want to be cool too? - I've created a MonkeyFilter group at orkut.com. Any monkey who wants an invitation to join orkut send me an email. more inside

The 213 Things Skippy is No Longer Allowed to Do in the U.S. Army - Once upon a time, there was a SPC Schwarz stationed with the Army in the Balkans. SPC Schwarz was either very clever or very bored; but probably both, since he managed to attempt or be warned about 213 things he wasn't allowed to do. He collected those things into a hilarious list and posted them to the web. more inside

Groundhog Day Today is Groundhog Day in the U.S. In honor of my favorite day of the entire year, here are some fun links: Groundhog Day songs Groundhog Day birthdays Groundhog Day the movie Groundhog day blog