It's A Flee Country! Former CIA analyst Chalmers Johnson, who coined the geopolitical usage of the term "Blowback", says in this Good Magazine piece that the time has come to give up on America. more inside

Monkey World Domination Is At Hand! Researchers at the Oregon National Primate Research Center have published a paper in the science journal Nature documenting their attempt to clone rhesus monkeys. Of 100 embryos, about 20 were successfully implanted (though not gestated to birth). It is the first such success with any primate, and represents a huge leap forward in cloning technology. The team hopes that their success will translate into improved techniques for therapeutic cloning for humans. Of course, this means that any evil genius worth his salt will be stealing this technology immediately to breed his own race of warrior monkeys for total world domination. I, for one, welcome...well, you know the drill.

A New Little Poo-Flinger! The London Zoo debuts a tiny new primate: a black-tailed marmoset baby no bigger than a wee mousie. Okay, so marmosets aren't strictly monkeys, but they're kissin' kin, and the SQUEEEEE factor is pretty high on this one. Loads of pictures in the main link, plus the usual Page 3 Girl teaser (SFW).

1950s Science Records For Kids I'm sure some of you monkeys will be magically transported back to your childhood by these recordings from a series of children's albums about topics in science -- Space (naturally), Weather, Energy, and Nature. All the MP3s are directly encoded from the records and include the hiss-and-pop noise that those of us over the age of 25 will immediately recognize. Listen and see if you don't feel a twinge of nostalgia for the simpler days of growing up in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Or, if you're a bit younger than that, you might listen for the influences on contemporary artists like They Might Be Giants, PeeWee Herman, and other retro-obsessed culture.

"Excessive Ovation Syndrome" Does EVERY performance deserve a standing ovation? This music critic does not seem to think so, and neither do I. I'm tired of being wrenched from my seat two or three times at the end of what might very well have been a totally adequate performance to offer my applause. The writer says he thinks it's just a way of justifying the outrageous ticket prices -- for that much money, it had better be SO-worthy.

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.

Some researchers in England got a grant to put a typewriter into a habitat of six macacques at the Devon Zoo for a month and monitored the results. I'm sure you're familiar with the old saw "put a thousand monkeys in a room with a typewriter and eventually come up with Shakespeare." It's basically the working model for hiring screenwriters in Hollywood (which explains how ABC came up with that Geico Caveman show idea) more inside

Pat, I'd Like To Buy A Sandwich Can't decide where to go for lunch? Just enter your Zip Code (yes, sorry, US only) and the query "Lunch" and let the Wheel Of Food pick which local restaurant you'll grace with your patronage!

This week in January marks not one, not two, but all three disasters that have occurred in the near half-century of America's manned spaceflight program. In fact, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee. Yesterday was the 21st anniversary of the Challenger explosion, a day which I remember very vividly. Finally, Thursday will be the 4th anniversary of the re-entry accident which destroyed the shuttle Columbia -- an incident that seems to have slipped much of the public attention that the Challenger accident received, but has probably had more effect on NASA's manned flights than either of the other ones. more inside

Bawdy and entertaining, popular among Ozzies and Kiwis, not as many members as MetaFilter -- it's La Clique! Yo, Math Owie, I got yer clique right here, pal.

"It's going to look like Little Somalia" I really didn't want to add to the noise, but this just has to be read and comprehended by as many people as possible: The United States Army is preparing to stage combat operations against "the insurgency" in New Orleans. You know, the citizens who were abandoned by their government to drown, burn, starve, murder one another or otherwise shrivel up and die of some other disaster-related cause. (link via boingboing) more inside

Happy Melon Day, Love Turkmenbashi "Let the life of every Turkmen be as beautiful as our melons," President Niyazov said in a statement.

Yeknom, Inc. Now hiring. Opposable Thumbs A Plus.

Sergei Eisenstein's seminal film, "Battleship Potemkin" has been restored. The BBC reports that the restored version of the 1925 film "Battleship Potemkin" is going to be screened for the first time at the Berlin Film Festival in February. The film now includes some long-missing title cards and text by Leon Trotsky which was excised by the Soviets, as well as some additional shots in the legendary "Odessa Steps" sequence. more inside

It's Like Christmas 1998 All Over Again If you're not busy between 1900 and 2200 hours Mountain Time (-7 GMT), you can turn this guy's Christmas tree lights on and off via his webcam. It's a shame to let such holiday traditions fade away, don't you think? It makes me so nostalgic for those simpler, happier days online.