Magnitude 7.2 earthquake near Christchurch, NZ. Hope all you monkeys are OK.

Google has a new year's present for Mac users. Picasa for the Mac is finally available (in beta, like all Google products). Now I can finally wave goodbye to iPhoto. (I am doing a happy dance right now.) more inside

Trenary Toast! My very favorite regional food, Trenary Toast is made in the small town of Trenary in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Much like the pasty, also famous in the U.P., it's greatly appreciated locally but largely unknown outside of the area. Which makes me wonder: What's your favorite regional bite? more inside

Fidel Castro to retire. Castro declined another term as President, ending 49 years in power. more inside

Marauding monkeys mortifying mothers; MPs miffed! more inside

James Brown has left the building. (PS Merry Christmas to all the monkeys.)

The Mighty Mac. When it was completed, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It took 42,000 miles of cable, more than 460,000 cubic yards of concrete, and weighs in at just over one million tons. On completion, the state governor called it an engineering marvel on the scale of the great pyramids, the Suez and Panama canals. The bridge has only one flaw: It wasn't built in a huge metropolis. When people talk of great bridges, you hear about the Golden Gate or the Verrazano Narrows, but you don't often hear about the Mackinac Bridge. more inside

Sock monkey porn. Link NSFSM [Not Safe For Sock Monkeys]. more inside

Stolen Bikes. It's a multimillion dollar business. Do you live in one of these places? How about a college town? Are you also a bike enthusiast? If so, you're at risk for losing your ride. Trust me - I found out the hard way. more inside

Curious George: Why do generic Cheerios taste so bad? I mean, we can send a man to the moon, but we can't replicate the Cheerio? What's up with that? more inside

Curious George: Accidental Tech Support You know how it is. Someone finds out you know what "RAM" is and the next thing you know you're 24/7 tech support for your whole department. How do you handle it? more inside

Curious, George: Cookies Part II. A long time ago I wondered why my MoFi cookie disappeared so easily. Now I can't figure out why Firefox refuses to auto-log-in when my cookie does disappear. more inside

Northumberland Rocks! More correctly, rocks in Northumberland. With prehistoric carvings on them. Forty years worth of archived information and lots of pretty photos of the historic rock art of northern England. If you live in the area, you can even search using a map and see what rock panels are near your own home.

US Judge orders removal of anti-evolution stickers This will probably be posted all over the place, and may not be new to some of you, but hey this made my day. No more anti-evolution stickers in Cobb County, GA. more inside

Chronic pain kills your brain. New research from Northwestern University suggests chronic back pain can kill off brain cells that are involved in decision-making and movement. The damage may or may not be permanent. As a guy with a partially slipped disc myself, suffice it to say this news didn't make my day.

Curious George: What do you love about America? With all the sadness and depression I had a thought: I love America. I do. You know why? Because in spite of whatever happens - in spite of the fact that, no matter who wins, about half the country didn't want him - we will take it, and we will accept it, without violence, without civil war, and we have been doing it since 1776. We have endured worse, and we will survive, and we will do it as a nation divided - yet we will do it without fragmenting, and without losing hope that some day it will be better. That's worth believing in. more inside

Curious George: cookie? Why does monkeyfilter hate my cookie? At least once a week I'm told i need to log in again, even though i visit daily and never log out. What's up with that? more inside

We've all heard of Watson and Crick. Who knew about this guy? DNA pioneer Maurice Wilkins died yesterday at the age of 88. One of three Nobel laureates for his work in helping discover the helical structure of DNA, Wilkins is probably the least known of the four people who were most responsible for describing DNA as we know it. more inside

curious george: customy goodness? can we make our user pages pretty? or aren't we allowed? more inside

The Daily Show wins an award for news programming? this seems pretty funny to me. and sort of sad that a fake news show gives me better news than the real news shows. more inside