As my buddy Jeff and I were walking around the neighborhood recently, I was struck by how many drop-dead gorgeous high-school age girls there were. Feeling sort of dumb for asking, I said, "Is it my imagination or have girls gotten prettier since we were in high school?"

Conventional wisdom holds that continental strength relies upon the solidity of rock at a depth of 15km and that below that pressure and heat cause the rock to flow as liquid. Not so fast, say Klaus Regenauer-Lieb, Roberto F Weinberg, and Gideon Rosenbaum. Their new study says that "through dynamic interaction the strongest part becomes the weakest."

The linguistic distribution of the generic names for soft drinks.

But the Ace Craft Gen H-4 personal helicopter is pretty darn cool. If you have a Y chromosome, I bet you want one, too.

Holy Molars Batman, <I>South Park</I> has been outdone by so-called real life! Say it ain't so!

Having wormed my way up miles of static rope with Gibbs and Petzl Frog ascenders, my biggest desire is to do away with the rope itself. I wants me a set of Gecko gloves and booties!

I haven't listened yet, but I'm already happy. I'm fighting the urge to just set the stuff up right here, right now, in my office.

Fixed gear bikes, in case you don't know, have no freewheel, which means that if the rear wheel is turning, you're peddling. There's no coasting on a fixie&mdash;and braking is a matter of leg power.

C'mon, 'fess up&mdash;don't you wish <I>you</I> lived in Brooklyn?