Crispin Jones takes functional, everyday objects and gives them an odd twist, transforming them into art. His mobile phones are designed to prevent anti-social phone behavior. His tables predict the future and keep themselves clutter-free. And his watches show the passing of time through the day's TV schedule or tell the world when you tell a lie. more inside

Not surprisingly, non-English speakers don't pronounce "@" as "At." What is surprising is that many of them agree that it looks like a monkey. The Albanians call it "the monkey sign," the Germans call it "the clinging monkey," and the Swedish call it "an ape's tail." It's not all siman-related, though; the author relates a conversation with an Israeli who gave his e-mail address as "Winkie M, Strudel, Yahoo dot com"...

Armageddon or NOT The ***-or-Not meme may have peaked, but there's still room for Armageddon or Not, which marries the democratic power of the Internet to the terrifying harbingers of the Apocalypse. more inside

Mic In Track Sometimes, people recording their voices on their home computers accidentally make the recording available via Kazaa or other file-sharing network. And sometimes, a mischeivious composer known as Stark Effect remixes those recordings into songs, which can be incredibly catchy, surprisingly wistful, or just sweet.

Schmuck Interviews Putz Warning: NSFWIYBUYBHNSOH (Not Safe For Work If Your Boss Understands Yiddish But Has No Sense Of Humor)

American Dinosaur Singing duo Hard 'n' Phirm present their moving, patriot tribute to the prehistoric beings who nobly layed down their lives, so that we might drive our cars. (Via Scott McCloud.)

Enclosures A collection of ephemera found between the pages of secondhand books.

It's like Tivo for radio. The awkwardly named BlogMatrix Jäger will automatically record a streamed audio broadcast, convert it to MP3 format, and store it on your iPod. Alas, until it leaves beta, the software will only run on Windows, so Mac users like me will have to wait. Any Windows types want to try it out and report back?

Pencil Test The finest computer animation a Macintosh II can produce. Notice that the credits include the name John Lasseter; if it sounds familiar, it's because he went on to direct Toy Story and other brilliant Pixar gems. (Link goes to a Quicktime movie.) more inside

The Vampire Watermelon : fact or fiction? more inside

"The Sahara is not just the classic dunes of The English Patient. The majority of the running we did was over vast plains of sand, gravel and rocks the size of tennis balls... Blow a knee out on the overnight stage, and you’d have to pull your emergency flare to call the helicopter. Blow it in the middle of a plain, and you’d have to wait for a passing marshal’s Land Rover to pick you up...It was only the first day, and people were already being withdrawn by the doctors for foot trauma." more inside

Curious, George: Scraping websites I've got a VERY rudimentary understanding of Perl but, so far, I've been able to put together my website by using free scripts from sites like this one. Alas, my google-fu doesn't seem to be strong enough to find a script for what I want to do next. more inside

Get out the vote from the comfort of your own home Americans who registered to vote through RockTheVote.com were given the chance to opt-in and get a reminder to vote on election day. And who is going to deliver that reminder? Why, you, of course. RocktheVote will give you a couple of phone numbers and a script to follow. All you have to do is pick up the phone and encourage a voter to exercize his or her basic rights. more inside

Just how likely is it that nobody will cough during a concert? Alas, if you want a good chance of having a cough-free experience, you will need to stock your concert hall with audience members who produce no more than 2 coughs per year, leading the researcher to conclude, "It's probably easier to just accept the coughing." This may be the biggest advance in the scientific study of Annoying Noises In Concert Halls since a professor at Simon's Rock proved you'll make the same amount of noise unwrapping a candy slowly as quickly, so you might as well get it over with. Unless, of course, you're using a the high-tech stealth wrapper. more inside

Curious, George: Which Bollywood Movie Should I See? The Prince Charles Cinema in London is hosting a Bollywood festival. Can any Bollywood-savvy Monkeys recommend which of these films to see? more inside

Light verse Just because it's poetry doesn't mean it has to be serious... more inside

iBrotha is the story of a Malcom-X-style zealot (played by The Matrix's Neil Rayment), who is dedicated to overthrowing the tyranny of Microsoft by any means necessary. A preview of the movie is available--in Quicktime and not Windows media, of course. more inside

TV shows that never were Where do you put TV that's too good for TV? more inside

Zinnia Cyclamen's blog describes her as a "non-religious funeral celebrant"--meaning she conducts memorial services for people who don't want a religious ceremony. It features darkly funny and touching tales about human beings trying to cope with a welter of conflicting emotions.

A tiny fish in the vast ocean of books Writer Stacey Sullivan learned that if your book isn't a political memoir or a trendy diet, you can't expect your editor to edit it, your publicist to publicize it, or bookstores to try to sell it. When the book industry adapts Hollywood's blockbuster mentality, where does that leave authors?