This video of one saxophonist encountering another on the New York City subway is, maybe (probably?), some kind of fake set-up thing, but it's nice to imagine a world where subway buskers are constantly being challenged to prove their worth as musicians. I'm thinking, like, some kind of publicly-funded agency of saxophonists and acoustic guitarists and doo-wop groups and Mariachi bands wandering the subways to engage buskers in musical battle; if the buskers lose they are no longer allowed to ask for money in exchange for the entertainment they provide. Just spitballing here. [via Reddit]

The Achilles Effect, a blog about gender stereotypes and masculinity, took stock of the frequency with which certain words are used in commercials for "gendered" toys like Hot Wheels and Bratz by making Wordle word clouds. See if you can guess which cloud goes with which gender! (Hint: Boys hate friendship, fun and glitter.) [Achilles Effect via Boing Boing]

You know that, "If a black cat crosses your path, it's bad luck" saying? Does it still apply if the cat—named Robocop, here—is busily engaged in a battle with a front-loading washing machine? Or is it just cute?

So it's happened: America is about to get itself caught up in an awesome war with heroic Somali pirates. As we speak, the hardy fleet is assembling for battle on the high seas.

Attention friends of Madonna and Guy Ritchie: You are no longer friends with Guy Ritchie. Madge is mustering her forces for what is hopefully going to be an epically nasty divorce. First strategy, gather the troops and hunker down. So the icon is reportedly telling her friends, hangers-on, sycophants, and other assorted slaves to stay the hell away from her soon-be-ex husband. You know, she doesn't want to be discussing how her lawyers may totally savage Ritchie's character in advance of a possible custody battle over their son Rocco just to have it get back to the director and his friends.