Curious George: Internet monitor. I am having lots of trouble finding a good Win app that will monitor my Internet connection minute-by-minute and tell me when the connection was up or down (Web down, DNS down, etc). Most of the programs I've found are good at alerting on outages but are poor on logging them. Any ideas here?

Curious George: Finding a taxi. I'm doing a quick business trip in Ohio and would like to avoid renting a car. If I just call up a place like "Yellow Cab" will I be getting good service and price? Or is it better to look around in the phone book?

Where's my aircar? Do any of the monkeys here think that aspects of our culture or technology are stagnating? more inside

Curious George: Tree identification. I'm looking for some good resources for tree identification (websites or books) so I can identify some specimens on our property. I haven't found anything really useful or complete, besides the Audubon book series. Anyone here done tree IDing? What do you recommend?

U.S. bankruptcy reform now on Senate floor. Pushed by the credit card industry, a formidable bankruptcy reform package (S.256) has made it out of committee and is widely expected to pass. While indeed it will crack down on the deadbeats, the reform will also make things considerably more difficult for those snowed in by medical debt and layoffs, many who will be in limbo unable to qualify for Ch 7 but unable to afford a Ch 13. Tenants will also lose protection when they file. More info [PDF].

The Day After Tomorrow. Exactly how do John & Terry afford that $600K mortgage, SUV, big-screen TV, and pool on a modest salary? And how do they weather a hypothetical domino effect where the U.S., plagued by consumer credit and offshoring of jobs, soars into economic ruin? more inside

Curious George: Dating. Seriously, what's the dating situation like these days? (read on) more inside

Geek George: Inkjet printer that doesn't suck. We have to replace our inkjet printer, and it needs to be a dual Win/Mac printer. However I'm kinda lost on how to select a good one (read on)... more inside

Curious George: What did you do today? Seeing as we're 22 hours into the calendar day and there have only been five posts, I couldn't help wondering where the monkeys are. Where were youse guys today? more inside

Grise Fiord. At latitude 76ºN, Grise Fiord is the most northerly town in North America: You'd have to walk 320 miles north from Barrow to get this close to the North Pole. This neat photo collection gives you a picturesque glimpse of what life is like in Grise Fiord, along with info about the Inuit culture.

National Security Archive (George Washington University). A fascinating and newsworthy vault of declassified U.S. government documents covering key items of policy and defense. See original papers on Nixon's China visit in 1972, the Iran crisis of 1979, and bickering over the Rwandan genocide. Don't miss the Top Ten oldest FOIA requests to see secrecy in action. Related MoFi FPP: Cryptome/Cartome.

The 100-year CD-ROM is a myth, according to a UK Independent expose last year [original source (subscription)]. A Dutch computer magazine found that CD-R dyes faded in as little as two years. Now what? Shall we start digging the floppy discs out of the attic?

Curious George: Good auto repair site? Is there a good in-depth auto repair site online? I have the obligatory Haynes manual, but it only gives a sketchy picture of the process without describing the big picture. Most websites I've found are like "how to change the oil", or deal with intricately specific & obscure problems. I want something that teaches me everything I need to know about a job, with good techniques, concepts, and advice. more inside

Buried in the headlines, Halliburton announced Friday that it's pulling out of Iran. Time to speculate on whether this has an ominous overtone or if it's just routine business maneuvering.

Curious George: Laptop batteries. I just replaced the Li-Ion battery in my laptop, but my tech-savvy wife says I can only expect a year of life at best. Is this pretty much on target? I remember that the factory battery (HP) did flake out after 18 months. Any experiences, ideas, or authoritative links on how to avert the annual battery toss?

A Riverside, Calif. neurologist lost a patient to CJD last year and thinks something is fishy at NPDPSC, the US prion watchdog agency. Allegedly the agency ruled out mad cow based on a test not acceptable to neuropathology experts. Now they've "lost" the brain sample and aren't talking to reporters. Now six cows from an infected Canadian herd have disappeared in the U.S. beef supply without a trace. The USDA doesn't seem to be talking to reporters, either.

Curious George: MonkeyCAD. What free/shareware CAD program might be good for designing a cheap mountain cabin? Something that would let me assemble lumber on-screen in 3D would be cool. Have any of you tinkered with anything in this area?

ESA flubs Titan landing show , probably the "worst PR disaster in the entire history of space travel", says astrophysicist Jeffrey Bell. Dr. Bell also laments The Next Five Big NASA Failures, the Mars Genesis fiasco ("the first time a real mission has copied a bad movie"), and ISS: International Space Scrapyard. Maybe he's the Andy Rooney of the space world, but he does puts forward some thought-provoking ideas.

First picture from Titan's surface. Breaking news from Saturn. Cool enough to deserve one more FPP in addition to the older one. I had to dig around to find this breaking image -- sorry that it's a bit tiny.

Curious George: Best blog font? What blog font is easiest on the eyes for you? more inside