Monkey on your back! Like a ta-da list for someone else, only cuter and with monkeys. via 43 Folders

Designer dogs are all the rage. They've been discussed here before. But can you tell the "real" designer dog from its humble cousin the shelter dog? Take the test and find out... more inside

It's been too damn long. Shake off those February blues and come out to Oakland to do our monkey thing. At least one of our LA monkey cousins will grace us with her presence; hopefully, more will join her.

When: Saturday, February 18.
Where: Luka's Taproom, 2221 Broadway, Oakland. Three short blocks from the 19th Street BART. (I'm looking at you, San Francisco.)

Are you a Republican? Answer a few simple questions and you can find out. more inside

For Monkeys who need to fling poop. Literally.

Pizza, Beer, and Tracicle. Monkeybashi, #2 and the kidlet are coming to the Bay Area at the end of January. Toss those New Year's Resolutions aside and put the meetup on your calendar. When: Saturday, January 29, 6pm onwards Where: Jupiter in Berkeley (right at the Downtown Berkeley BART station) more inside

Curious George: UK in the blink of an eye My SO and I are flying to the UK for a friend's wedding. Since we are squeezing in the trip to fit within the US Thanksgiving Holiday, I have roughly half a day in London and half a day in Ludlow, Shropshire, before getting on the plane and flying back to California. more inside

US Government sends mixed messages about flu vaccine. President Bush wasn't properly briefed on the flu vaccines issue before the third debate, both getting the facts wrong and trying to take credit for something the US didn't do. more inside

How not to buy happiness. In effect, I wish to propose two different answers to the question “Does money buy happiness?” more inside

Random Word Generator By analyising the frequency of pairs of letters in 45,402 different words it is possible to generate new words which, although, don't have any meaning are reasonably syntactically correct. more inside

"just plain false. Not Bill Clinton “depends upon what is is” false, but false the way most Americans learned growing up: just not true." Bill O'Reilly has declared "it's war" between Fox News Channel and the New York Times. Larry Lessig has no problems with that, he just wants O'Reilly to apologize to Jeremy Glick. more inside

One-Letter Words. All-Consonant Words. Strange and unusual dictionaries.

Curious George: Someone's having a birthday. No peeking, Tracicle. more inside

"... there are really only two things you really need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important.” Example: The Two Things about Blogging: 1. Everyone who runs one is a kook. 2. Everyone who comments in one is a kook. more inside

Curious, George: Am I paranoid, or are they out to get me? Someone has been letting himself into my apartment when I’m not there. What can I do to prove it? more inside

iPod, annotated. For all the Monkeys who played the Blogstop games- come up with you own "i"- word. Other New Yorkers have used the Apple campaign for more pointed commentary. [via Gizmodo]

Photoshop makes art safe for children Taking a hint from John Ashcroft, Worth 1000 makes the classics of Western Art SFW. [via boingboing]

Why you should never post your picture on the net.

Our own Death Star? Richard Muller's Nemesis Theory hypothesizes that our solar system is a binary one, and that a red dwarf star, likely visible with a small telescope or even binoculars, is the "companion" to the sun. more inside

Is "progress" the opposite of "Congress"? It's posturing, and it won't get anywhere, but if any Monkeys happen to live in Kentucky's Second District, you need to contact your representative now and tell him to knock it off. [via Atrios.]