Animals on the underground: London tube map as constellation-riddled sky. I wonder if anyone's tried this with LA or NY? (via the indispensible Boing Boing)

(also from BB) John Ashcroft is barking mad. (I think Mike must have typed this Vanity Fair article in by hand, a prodigious effort.)

Stuart of DoublePlusUngood issues a challenge. I'm going to do it; so should you.

Two posts from the Pagan Prattle indicating that Scotland the not only Brave but also Sensible is preparing to jettison state funding for faith schools.

Also from PP, something I want to follow up: apparently right-wing psychofundy "Christian" bigmouth Pat Robertson recently said

I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I'm hearing from the Lord that it's going to be a blowout.

so when (think positive!) Shifty George loses, I want to Pat to tell me: was God wrong, or did He lie to you?

(via Jerry Kindall) I know someone who would love this: Enigma-E, a kit with which to build yourself an electronic version of the Enigma coding machine. If that's too much trouble, PBS has a virtual Enigma you can play with.

Jerry got that link from spurl.net, which is a neato keen bookmarking and recommendation service. I like it better than del.icio.us, which I joined and never got around to using much.

Crooked Timber features a bunch of overeducated liberals, posting and commenting. I like that in a website. Also, Belle likes Sesame Street, and even caught them out in a James Joyce allusion. Criticisms about "preparing kids for sound-bite consumer culture" are valid I suppose, but the last word for my money goes to commenter mike: Name a single other entertainment entity that over a quarter century threw up occasional bits of disorienting depth with so much good humor and so little mean-spiritedness.

Another great books thread; in this one, Ed wants to know which five science and technology books you would have every (university) student read. Good stuff.