Lewis Menand ruminates on notable quotables and why accuracy is over-rated.

<I>angrylittlegirls.com</I> manages to avoid getting all soppy about it.

<I>Mapsofwar.com</I> has posted a nifty animated map showing the imperial history of the Middle East: the rise and fall of empires and states in the region over 5000 years. There are other, similar maps at the website, showing, among other things,the ebb and flow of religions over the ages.

I usually go into the Grammy telecast with much cynicism already on edge and a large glass of some variety of fermented libation standing by for medicinal purposes.

Ever since I posted "Interval Library" yesterday, people have been sending me more librarian humor. Today, we have an international contender, supplied by constant reader John Marks.
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Robert P. Crease's <A HREF="http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/20/1/8/1">article</A&gt; on the importance of letters between scientists in helping us appreciate the evolution of ideas planted the thought, but Adam Kirsch's review of Robert Frost's notebooks really has me wondering: Now that we communicate so much through email&mdash;and revise our drafts without saving them&mdash;will future scholars have to judge us only on our published copy?

Is there an anthropological record of a chimpanzee stone age?

That's pretty much what David Hewlett said. As a result, he made <I>A Dog's Breakfast</I> for less than a million&mdash;it's a long tail thang.