Wes Phillips

I'm sure we're #51. This year.

Try to wrap your mind around the stats involving Toxoplasma gondii. The parasite makes rats seek cats, but is it also altering the cultures of entire nations? Skewing the sex ratios of affected populations? Doubling the chances of traffic accidents?

I remember when The Virginia Quarterly Review was the perfect panacea for insomnia, but something has happened to that august publication: It woke up! These days, it has become a must-read, from Art Spiegelman's latest multi-chapter opus to well-written articles such as this one on Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland.

Wired has published key documents from the EFF's lawsuit against ATT&T for allegedly cooperating with the NSA'S domestic surveillance program. Former AT&T tech Mark Klein, who outed these documents, also offers his commentary.

Well, the last time I was in Peru, I bought a piece of eight because I heard that's what Brian May uses as a pick—but that was only 400 years old and only cost about $4. These picks, made from meteorites, are 4.5 billion years old and cost over $100.

I'm not sure you should trust this list too much, especially #6. I went to high school with the Jehle brothers, whose father used to play chamber music with Einstein in Princeton. Dietrich and Eberhardt never claimed he was concert level, but he played well enough that he—and his fellow musicians—enjoyed it.

From the next generation of Tang to a universal life equation.