Such as:

1. Why are there two camels in a tiny car?

2. How does one get two camels in a tiny car?

And the most important question: …more

Porn has returned to the streets of Baghdad, signaling success for Operation Enduring Freedom, or whatever the American military effort is called. Mission Finally Accomplished!

Or an ad for Vidal Sassoon Styling Mousse: …more

They look colorized but these images from the Albert Kahn collection are autochromes — the earliest true color photos — and besides being nifty and nostalgic, they seem to live up to Kahn’s goal to create a photographic record of the world in an “Archive of the Planet.” …more

…about being dishonest.

This article should have been titled “Republicans Freely Admit They Have No Ideas,” since it basically is an on-the-record admission by GOP strategists that their mid-term strategy, which is the culmination of two years of GOP opposition strategy, is to use fear to impugn Democratic policies while offering none of their own. One Republican pollster wonders: “What’s our plan to create jobs and grow the economy?” Tellingly, he doesn’t provide an answer.

First they said that monkeys do pay for sex, but only in a lab, and once they’ve been taught to use currency. Or maybe, it turned out, that wild macaques do it too, trading services instead of coins. What services? A little grooming, maybe some hunting.

Apparently, this phenomenon has been given the appetizing appellation”meat for sex” in the primatological literature. I guess that refers to the hunting part mostly. But a new study suggests it’s not true! But let’s not let the pendulum swing too far back here. I mean, we can’t let one little study come between us and our prurient notions about our simian friends, can we?

First, a question. If you were a proprietor of a criminal organization with a cliched (and apparently universal) flamboyant aesthetic, don’t you think that you might one day decide to dress in sweaters and chinos so as to avoid easy detection by the police? Aren’t there some economic laws in play? You’d figure there would be some comparative advantage, or decreased business risk, for the first dressed down pimp. He would do well, others would follow, etc.

Such a pimp may exist out, but that pimp is not this dude: …more

Who knew there were still roving bands of dancing hermaphrodites and eunuchs?

Even more surprising is the fact that hijira, as the gypsy-like middlesex is called in South Asia, are marginally accepted as a social group, even in conservative Pakistan. In a place where cultural tradition allows for honor killings, it seems surprising that gender-ambiguity is tolerated at all, especially as uninvited guests at the central ceremonial rite of patriarchal hegemony (that’s right; fancy words!): …more

Susan Mullally is a photographer in Texas. Among other things, she takes pictures of homeless people who congregate underneath an Interstate 35 bridge in Waco.

The portraits are of the people, rootless for various reasons, and the things they still treasure in their predicament. Mullally also interviews her subjects, who explain why they cling to certain things. For a quick read about a seriously compelling read about life amongst the homeless, check this out. But for a direct connection to some of those people, in their own words, Mullally has created a gallery of her work here. The one I lingered on the longest was Charles Rose: …more

At first I was excited about this. Combine two Japanese cultural traditions — contemplative poetic exercise and atomic age monster from the deep — and you get humor and existential melancholy, like so:

…more

I wish I had bought this:

Only $8.99!

The best detail about the Senate parliamentarian is not that he is a mysterious figure with a question mark for a head. Or that his last interview was 22 years ago. Or that Senate Historian Donald Ritchie has only seen him in the cafeteria a couple times in 30 years. Or even that, um, some part of the future of health care has landed in his inbox.

It’s that Donald Frumin, interpreter of procedural arcana, sometimes likes to wears cut-off jeans.

Directed energy missile defense works, for the first time.

Very funny. (Foreordained at this point, but still worth noting!)

There was Gerald (and Sara) Murphy:

Looking comfortably mechanical at the Comte Étienne de Beaumont’s Automotive Ball in 1924.

P.s. How awesome is it that there was such a costume ball?

P.p.s. Looks like Gerald’s costume came complete with a revved up engine under the hood!

All in one story!

It is the tale of a third-grade indiscretion that also happens to also be an economic parable for our time. It involves snacks. In addition to the above snacks, there are appearances by classics — Cheetos, Fritos, Jolly Ranchers — and some peripheral favorites, like Nutter Butters. There is a Chunky. And by the way: remember when Chunky came out and it was billed as this long-anticipated new development, a Great Leap Forward in the chocolate bar like nothing you’ve ever seen? And then it hit the counters and was thicker, yes, but also smaller than other chocolate bars while costing the same? Now that’s marketing. “It’s chunkier!”

A version of this story also appeared on Planet Money/Morning Edition. But then I wrote it down, and now it’s as official as it gets. A humor piece. Usually I spend months reporting stories about weirdos, but now the weirdo is me. And there I am, right across from Biden and Spitzer. Now I just have to get hair plugs, and have paid trysts while wearing only my sock garters!

I am going to guess that there is no file on this usage in Nintendo’s Product Safety Department.

You gotta respect it: dude knows what he wants — and just asks for it: …more

Martian Landscapes! In orbit 187 miles up, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is taking incredible photos of the surface of the red planet:

Here are dozens more equally entrancing images.

Not to mention Leni Riefenstahl. If Berlin has no mountains, why not build one?

Architect Jakob Tigges suggests putting Berlin back on the monumentalist map by erecting a 3,000-foot mountain on the site of the recently decommissioned Tempelhof airport. Summer hiking, winter skiing, Teutonic myth-making — all convenient to the S-Bahn!

A nifty idea that will never happen, and not just because the architect’s own video presentation features him, along with digital images of the Berg plan, set to Looney Tunes cartoon music. But that doesn’t stop this imaginary mountain from tweeting! And the pictures are neat: …more

Riddle me this, art-cognoscenti? Why is Frederic Church not as well known as William Turner? Does the Hudson not inspire as great art as (my alma mater) Heidelberg? Is it just that Church was American?

Twilight in the Wilderness:

Such is the theme of a group show at Royal/T. In Bed Together is what it’s called. I think it’s metaphorical. …more

Is something I’d like to see: …more

So there was a great piece in the LA Times last week about Art Laboe, an 84-year-old veteran radio host in Los Angeles whose long history and oldies show has forged a deep cross-cultural connection with the Latino community.

Laboe may be old news to some, but that’s all the more reason to say hats off to the LA Times for putting a story on him up front. Better late than never. (Even the LA Weekly hasn’t done a cover on Laboe, although Ben Quiñones has mentioned him several times.) Esmeralda Bermudez‘s story was well-told and refreshingly written for the stuffy ol’ front page. Human interest can have real heart. …more

Joshuah Bearman has an article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine about the burgeoning independent video game developer scene.

Basically, technology and distribution has enabled a do-it-yourself, ‘zine movement in video games. It’s a raucous avant garde, and wants to upset its medium’s establishment while also — dare one say it — making video games that aspire to artistic greatness.

Profiling the scene for the magazine, Josh spent some time at the Game Developer’s Conference, during with the indie designers convened in a corner of the Moscone Center. This was the site of an incredible lecture by an indie gamer named Cactus, which was one of Josh’s favorite scenes — until it got cut at the last minute! Hey, it happens. But thanks to the magic of the internet, such tragedies can now be corrected by allowing resected prose to appear here, on the Rumpus! …more

Because this video mural, installed in an elevator in the new Standard in New York, is mesmerising.

…more

Looks like they don’t have Noël Godin covered. I love a scoop! So I submitted the following: …more

or talk in riddles, or compose weird rhymes about their crimes?

This story, by this great writer, is like a real life Silence of the Lambs!

Find part 1 here.

A while back, as a nice gesture, my pal Sean McDonald gave me George Saunders’ (at the time) new book, The Braindead Megaphone. It was in galley, since Sean edited it. I was excited. Here in my hands, was one of the few perks of being in a publishing-related field — an advance copy book! And free! Plus, I like that George Saunders guy too.

But I had no idea how much more I would like Saunders when I read his non-fiction, nor did I even know that he wrote non-fiction …more