How to swear in Tagalog. John Patrick, guest-blogging at Bitch Ph.D., concludes his primer on a conciliatory note:  “Don’t be mad. We’re all oppressive in different ways. You are penis/rectum people, we’re not. It’s all good.”

How to bet on a snail race, from Mental Floss blogs and New Scientist: “When inspecting the snails at the start line, make sure to put your dough on the least slimy creature.” Unlike most fluids, their mucus gets slipperier as it gets thinner.

What would become of a real Incredible Shrinking Man, from “The Biology of B-Movie Monsters” at the University of Chicago Library’s digital collections: Because he’s 1/70th of normal size in height, the ISM has only 1/5000th of his original surface area and 1/350,000th of his original volume, so maintaining body temperature is going to be job one. “He’s going to have to supply his body with much more fuel,” writes Michael C. LaBarbera; “like a shrew, he’ll probably have to eat his own weight daily just to stay alive. He’ll also have to give up sleeping and eat 24 hours a day or risk starving before he wakes up in the morning.”

Games College Republicans play, according to Andrew Grossman in the Michigan Daily, as proposed by an intern with the College Republican National Committee: “One such idea is ‘Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day,’ in which a volunteer would play the part of an illegal immigrant and hide somewhere on campus while others try to find him. . . . other ideas include an event called ‘Fun with Guns,’ in which young Republicans would use a BB gun or paintball gun to shoot cardboard cut-outs of Democratic leaders such as Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).” Republican National Committee chariman Ken Mehlman has since described these activities as “reprehensible,” and the MSU Young Americans for Freedom in a press release has in turn condemned him for doing so.