You know this already - the Earth is growing warmer.

Country bans smoking.

Abraham Lincoln - gay American?

This is a very long read but SO worth it - NYTimes Magazine's "The Year in Ideas: A to Z".

If you don't want to read the whole thing, here are some of my favs:

best way to skip a stone

the car that emotes

the cold-weather theory of witchcraft

eyeball jewelry

purple is the color of correction

skin literature

the TV blaster

the thermoacoustic freezer

the vaporized, oxygenated cocktail

Gamer spends $26,000 for a virtual island. I don't feel so bad about my once or twice a week Everquest II habit.

And finally, cell phone sex toys.