The two most powerful warriors are...

This review of Steven Pinker's new book The Sense of Style begins with the curse of knowledge - the inability to properly communicate because you are unable to put yourself in the audience's position of not knowing what you know - and ends in a way that made me put the book on my Amazon wish list.

Super geeky: before slide rules there were Genaille-Lucas Rulers for doing math.

What books influenced Tolstoy? Read the list he wrote that covers his entire life. Lots of bible stuff but also Homer and Dickens.

Today's the last day of banned books week, mocking attempts to protect our children from Captain Underpants.

This would take all the fun out of hunting for sea glass but it's really not fair - California's Glass Beach is a protected area.

Need to work with PDF files? Here at 10 handy how-to ideas.

Speaking of good ideas, the Stand Up is a simple, disposable product that lets women pee easily while standing. HOWEVER, the first thing I'll tell the ladies is that no guy drops his trousers around his ankles while tinkling so the photos on the web site are misleading.

Bill Snyder, Horsehead Nebula (IC 434) - Winner in the Deep Space category for Astronomy Photographer of the Year.

Using this live earthquake map I see that the most recent temblor (I word I dislike) was a 2.9 near Mammoth Lakes, CA.

More maps? OK, here's U.S. states and cities with the best weather.

More? How about the brands most googled in each state? (Why in the hell are people googling Facebook?)

The award-winning Prism Table.

They say behind every successful man there's a good woman. Science tells us that may be truer than you think, especially if your spouse is conscientious.

Fascinating reading: The Smithsonian Magazine gets a tour of the CIA's museum.

This alphabet made of human body parts is creepy. It's from a book about how typography is all around us.

...patience and time. ~Leo Tolstoy