Having the odd occasion to try to determine if mail sent in a foreign language is spam or not, I have found Babelfish entirely invaluable. Combine that with the old chaining of machine translations game, and you end up Lost in Translation. I had not been able to find any particularly enjoyable phrases to Babelize, though I find myself suddenly excessively fond of what happens to “Forced Perspective” if you include Chinese, Japanese, and Korean: “Perspective of the resistance.” That’s us.

I neglected to post this bizaare beached whale remains story when it was first brought to my attention, but as with most rotten things, it hasn’t gotten appreciably worse in the meantime. Bonus phrase: “a ‘skeleton suspended in a semi-liquid mass within a bag of skin and blubber’.”

It’s hyper-infectious, ubiquitous, and we don’t know what it does. Maybe we could use it as a gene delivery service. Bonus phrase: Nanette van Loon.

I happened to see a summary of results from a recent trial of a hormonal contraceptive for men. Some of the details: “[T]here were no major adverse reactions to treatment and no deaths. Roughly one-third of subjects had a side effect from the study, the most common of which was weight gain.” Also, “The rate of ‘azoospermia’, that is, a sperm count of zero was 90% in the group which received testosterone injections every 4 weeks and 75% in the groups which received testosterone injections every six weeks.” I’d feel better about higher rates of azoospermia, and I’m not sure I’d be willing to get a shot in the ass every four weeks. Maybe, though. Anyway, “The company with which we collaborated, Organon Pharmaceuticals, is excited about these results and is therefore funding a larger Phase IIb trial of 350 men in 14 countries based on a similar regimen. If the regimen continues to be safe and effective in this upcoming Phase IIb trial, Organon will use the results from our completed study and the Phase III trial to apply for FDA approval for this method and men will finally have a contraceptive option besides condoms, vasectomy and abstinence.” And that will be a good thing.

The thing I found most notable about this Wired article about how the Mac G4 Cubes have inspired fanatical loyalty among those who purchased them, and are continuing to sell well on eBay, is the complete absence of references to NeXT.

In trying to track down information on whether the Seattle Lusty Lady (they don’t have a useful home page, or I’d link to it) was going to be closing, I ran across this mention that the SF Lusty had been acquired by an employee co-op, rescuing it from closing. According to an earlier report, there were no plans to close the Seattle branch.

Salzburg’s mayor is embarrassed over a new statue unveiled on the eve of a visit from Prince Charles. The photo on the BBC page is discreet but does convey the essentials, if not the full enormity.

That makes today’s bonus phrase “two-foot erection.”

Apparently a French 75 is made with gin, while a French 125 is made with brandy. Both involve champagne, ice, sugar and lemon. Your alcohol research fact for the day.

A flash kitty. This one doesn’t bite, or at least I couldn’t make it bite.

Do you want to write a book? Sure, we all do! Here are a few suggestions for topics that are currently not covered well in the world of books that are actually in print (updated as I think of stuff):

Boat and RV upholstery projects

Good tattoo ideas, including the meaning of mysterious symbols and characters

Phrasebooks and foreign language dictionaries aimed at eating in restaurants (see Chowhound’s translation card, we need more of this!)

Baby names in Vietnamese: specifically, American names with their meanings explained in Vietnamese.