Mark Dery is guest blogger du jour until August 17. He is the author of Culture Jamming, Flame Wars, Escape Velocity, and The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium. He's at work on The Pathological Sublime, a philosophical investigation into the paradox of horrible beauty and the politics of "just looking." — Read the rest

Here's part five of the Boing Boing Holiday Gift Guide, a roundup of the bestselling items from this year's Boing Boing reviews. Today's installment is nonfiction books.

Don't miss the rest of the posts: kids' stuff, fiction, gadgets and comics. — Read the rest

At her Paper magazine blog, the amazing Ann Magnuson posts about the myths and reality of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center's National Museum of Health and Medicine. Sadly, and contrary to widespread elementary school belief, the Museum is not home to John Dillinger's penis. — Read the rest

Very few places have impressed me as deeply as Philadelphia's Mütter Museum, the College of Physicians' permanent pathology museum, build on the collection of a Victorian pathologist, since expanded and improved upon.

The Mütter's collection is devoted to preserved remains of human oddities. — Read the rest