Folk-rock golden boy Devendra Banhart has collaborated with everyone from Beck to Yoko Ono. Now he's hard at work on a new album and recently told Rolling Stone about the linguistic adventures he's going on during recording the followup to 2005's Cripple Crow.

Banhart is so devoted to his craft he even learned Yiddish. He decided to learn the language for the song "Shabop Shalom," which he describes as being about "a Jamaican boy who falls in love with a Jewish princess." No word on on whether he means Jewish-American princess. Seems appropriate for a guy who is signed to Young God Records, no?

For those of you who aren't addicted to crappy reality TV like I am, let me fill you in on what's been happening this season on Big Brother.

The difference between Big Brother and the more successful The Real World franchise is that while both features people who are taped 24/7, The Real World is edited down into 22 half-hour episodes. With an online feed and a partnership deal with Showtime, Big Brother allows for neither editing nor downtime. That means that the show captures not only the mundane but the scandalous, and viewers tune in hoping to catch the good stuff.

This season has been rife with stupidity and intolerance. If you haven't been following the show closely, have no fear. One clever MySpacer came up with a handy diagram to show the prejudices of everyone on the show.

One particularly odious contestant, Amber, has made no secret of her dislike of Jews, saying that she can tell a Jew by their last name and they're all "selfish" and "greedy." You can see video of her antisemitic rant here, complete with audio feedback.

This advice column from Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who is always willing to lecture people about their Jewishness or lack thereof, gives advice to a Christian man who met an Israeli woman online.

Compare that with this story that came over the wire today, about an Australian guy who got scammed into thinking he was falling in love with a woman he met online. When he went to Mali to 'meet' her, he ended up being kidnapped and held for $86,000 ransom.

I mean, how can anyone who has ever used JDate ever doubt that people lie on the internet? I know I said that I was five-foot-six, but I was kind of rounding up...