Good mothers stop monkeys going bad.

Ashes and Snow. Photography by Gregory Colbert. (Flash, resizes window, via wood s lot.)

Ordering pizza in a surveillance society. [Flash, via Crooked Timber.]

Discussing Disgust. On the folly of gross-out public policy. An interview with Martha Nussbaum. more inside

The Work Ethic The Play Ethic. Pat Kane in conversation with R.U. Sirius. (Via die puny humans (the filthy monkey, it plans...))

Momo's Home Page.

Will Compasses Point South? "The collapse of the Earth's magnetic field, which both guards the planet and guides many of its creatures, appears to have started in earnest about 150 years ago. The field's strength has waned 10 to 15 percent, and the deterioration has accelerated of late, increasing debate over whether it portends a reversal of the lines of magnetic force that normally envelop the Earth."

MONKEY HATE CLEAN! Damn dirty humans. more inside

An interview with Mahabir Pun, the man behind Nepal's WiFi project for villages and farmers. more inside

Angelina Jolie won a reprieve for a forest near her home in Cambodia from a planned hydroelectricity project. Jolie, who is a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador as well as an actress, pledged $1.3 million to protect Cambodia's forests last year. more inside

Court Creates Snoopers' Heaven. A federal appeals court has ruled (PDF) that an e-mail provider did not break the law when he copied and read e-mail messages sent to customers through his server, setting a precedent for e-mail service providers to legally snoop on their customers' e-mail.

AIDS in India: South Asia's smoldering threat. First of a Five-Part Series.

Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation.

The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 was the 18th Century's equivalent of the Patriot Act, and its most famous victim was Benjamin Franklin's grandson.

A Distant Glimpse of Gurdjieff by John Shirley, who has written a new book about George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. [Via Disinformation, which also has an article about Gurdjieff's case for ending war.] more inside

Thousands of truckers, bus drivers and rest-stop workers are being enlisted to spot terrorists. It sounds like Operation TIPS is back. Can I have a Junior Homeland Security Fun Kit?

The fossil record of aquatic sloths.

HATEBEAK! The world's first death metal band with a parrot as lead singer. Here's an MP3 sample of God of Empty Nest. [Via Boing Boing.]

A Global Power Shift in the Making. "Asia is rising fast, with its growing economic power translating into political and military strength. The West must adapt -- or be left behind." more inside

Lincoln Park Zoo Apes Get to Take Revenge "At the zoo's new Regenstein Center for African Apes, chimpanzees can touch a panel hidden from public view that will shoot harmless bursts of air at unsuspecting visitors." [Via Fark.]