This month, millions of basketball fans are following the NCAA men's basketball tournament, which will determine its four regional champs between tomorrow and Sunday. Let's hope these college hoops fans aren't using their tournament brackets to bone up for a geography exam, because there is some true oddball geography at play.

The match-ups for the sweet sixteen this year have Washington State in the running to be regional champ for the East, and the possibility of Michigan State facing off against Stanford to be tops in the South.  Coastal UCLA is the only school with the geographic bona fides for the Western title, but two of the region's out of place contenders do at least have "West" in their names -- West Virginia and Western Kentucky.

I started to worry that the selection committee's GPS was caught up in the madness, but a little digging on the NCAA website and an email or two showed there is indeed a method. Back in 1980, the NCAA officially put the goal of competitive balance ahead of geographic accuracy. They didn't completely ditch the atlas, though, maintaining a secondary goal of keeping teams "in their areas of natural interest." 

Clearly, that doesn't always happen. "It's impossible to put every team close to home," admits NCAA spokesman David Worlock. "But the effort is made."  The most surefire way to ensure a home region advantage: Be the best.  The University of North Carolina was the number one overall seed this year and was first to be placed in the group that will play in Charlotte, just down the road from Chapel Hill.

-Brad Scriber

Have you seen the new blockbuster 10,000 BC ? That prehistoric mashup of sabertooths, warlords, and pyramids? Well, we haven’t. But we’ve read the reviews, and we’re no fools. (We already saw Beowulf ! What more do you people want?)

Anyway, what we've heard about the movie made us wonder about one of the animals featured in the mix: mammoths. Seeing as we just edited a piece for the April issue of National Geographic comparing mammoths and mastodons, two members of the once-diverse order Proboscidea (biggest difference: mammoths were bigger), we naturally wondered: Does 10,000 BC actually depict mammoths? Or could those CGI monsters be mastodons? The untrained eye (or CGI animator) might have a hard time telling the difference, so we asked a couple of folks who are as trained as they come.

Ross MacPhee is the curator of vertebrate zoology and mammology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “You’re about the tenth media organization to call me about this in the last few days,” he complained. “It’s strange: My astrophysicist friends never seem to get calls about whether a ‘Death Star’ would work!” Then he confessed that he hadn’t seen 10,000 BC, either.

But, he said, “to the degree that you can tell—from what I can glean from the one second I’ve caught in the trailer—it’s clear that [the filmmakers] modeled the movements on mammoths. Mastodons were built closer to the ground, so they would have looked odd, like squat elephants. Also, [the animals in the movie] clearly have spiral tusks, same as mammoths.”

Next up: Daniel Fisher, a geology professor at the University of Michigan and a curator of the school’s Museum of Paleontology. Fisher says he hasn’t caught the movie (we’re sensing a pattern here), but one of his students has. “From what I’ve heard,” says Fisher, “the animals weren’t done very well, so there may have been some real uncertainties in the filmmakers’ minds about which animal was which.”

He says the potential confusion may stem, in part, from the fact that humans hunted both mammoths and mastodons, though there’s far more archaeological evidence—20 sites worldwide versus two—that they killed the former more often. The protagonist of 10,000 BC is apparently a mammoth hunter, but Fisher says that’s not especially telling. “The evidence that humans hunted mastodons is tenuous, but that’s not to say it’s not compelling,” he says. “In fact, I would argue there’s quite a bit of evidence of both hunting and butchery [of mastodons]. So who knows?”

As nice and helpful as these two experts were, we’re beginning to think there’s nothing for it: If we really want to get a sense of what’s running ’round onscreen, we should just go see the movie already. Or find someone—anyone!—who has.

Does that include you? What do you think: mammoths or mastodons? We’re all ears.

-Jeremy Berlin

People in Washington, D.C., are talking about peeps—specifically, the dioramas made from the garishly hued Easter candy for a Washington Post contest. And here at National Geographic headquarters, we’re especially proud of the one made by the society’s communications staff, an effort that placed among the finalists: “U2 PeepD,” an homage to the 3D film distributed by National Geographic.

Juggling Peeps, foam, exacto knives, and hot glue, the team of Stephanie Montgomery, Ann Barrett, Ethan Fried, Heather Cabral, and Kate Baylor toiled for hours, suffered glue burns, and developed carpal tunnel syndrome from cutting out photos of the drum set, cell phone, and other props. If you want to visit the Post’s Web site and cast a vote of support for this National Peepographic entry as a reader favorite, well, you won’t hear a, um, peep of protest out of Peep, er, Pop Omnivore.

I am from Maryland, and I love dessert. And now, my home state legislature is poised to make Maryland one of the very few states in the nation to have its very own official dessert: Smith Island Layer Cake.

I must confess that, growing up in Baltimore, I never even heard of Smith Island, let alone its luscious cake. And what makes it an island delicacy? I asked Jonna Jones, an editor at Tidewater Publishers, which has published a cookbook of island recipes. Jones says that it's one of the classic recipes passed down from mother to daughter on the isolated island. Cookbook coauthor Frances Kitching, an island native, opened a restaurant and prepared (and preserved) many of the dishes.

From our extensive Internet research, we have found three other states who have enshrined a local confection are Massachusetts (Boston Cream Pie), Florida (Key Lime Pie), and South Dakota (Apple Kuchen). We’d love to hear from residents of other states about the dessert they’d like to nominate as their local best. Or if you'd like to read about a variety of regional eats, check out this Pop Omnivore entry.

Meanwhile, for cooks with a lot of butter and an hour or so on their hands, the recipe follows.

-Marc Silver

Smith Island 10-Layer Cake:

Frosting

2 sticks butter
2-12 oz. cans evaporated milk
8 heaping Tablespoons unsweetened Cocoa
2 lbs. confectioners Sugar

    * Melt butter. Stir in evaporated milk (off heat).
    * Whisk in Cocoa until smooth, return to heat and cook for approximately 10 minutes. DO NOT BOIL or Scorch.
    * Remove from heat and whisk in confectioners sugar slowly.
    * Cook slowly until thickened and will stick to back of a spoon or to the whisk (It will form a ribbon when you drizzle a spoonful onto mixture while cooking).
    * Approx time: 45 minutes.

Cake

2 cups sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks
5 - eggs
3 - cups flour
1⁄4 - teaspoon salt
heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 cup evaporated milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1⁄2 cup water

Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix into egg mixture one cup at a time. With mixer running, slowly pour in the evaporated milk, then the vanilla and water. Mix just until uniform. Put three serving spoonsful of batter in each of ten 9-inch lightly greased pans, using the back of the spoon to spread evenly. Bake three layers at a time on the middle rack of the oven at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. A layer is done when you hold it near your ear and you don't hear it sizzle.

Start making the icing when the first layer goes in the oven. Let the layers cool a couple of minutes in the pans. Put the cake together as the layers are finished. Run a spatula around the edge oft he pan and ease the layer out of the pan. Don't worry if it tears; no one will notice when the cake is finished. Use two or three serving spoonsful of icing between each layer. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the rest of the icing. Push icing that runs onto the plate back onto the cake.
To ice the cake

    * Take one slightly cooled layer and spread with cooled frosting. Add crushed candy randomly on layer. (Reese cups, snickers, milky ways, or whatever your favorite is—candy is optional as well )
    * Add next layers, frosting, candy, and repeat process till the 10th layer.
    * Do not add candy to final layer.
    * Finish frosting the cake and sides. May have to wait to ice top and sides until the icing cools.
    * Enjoy!

From Mrs. Kitching’s Smith Island Cookbook by Frances Kitching and Susan Stiles Dowell. Copyright ©1981 by Tidewater Publishers. Used by permission of Tidewater Publishers, Centreville, Maryland

Apparently, geckos aren’t just for selling car insurance anymore. They also boogie down for Life Water—to Michael Jackson’s "Thriller." The music is so ‘80s, but the reptile is HOT HOT HOT these days. I suppose some ad execs did focus groups to determine which creatures, when made to talk or dance and wear gangsta grills on their teeth, can sell stuff. Geckos, apparently, scored high.

Actually, I get it. I’m a huge fan of geckos. I keep them as pets and breed them. And I have to say, they’re doing much bigger and better things out in the world than pushing products or entertaining the likes of me. They are inspiring new technologies that actually help people.

It’s all about the feet. Gecko toes are covered with millions of microscopic spatula-tipped hairs that adhere to surfaces at the molecular level. It’s what allows them to walk on walls and hang upside down. Scientists have realized how amazing the hairs are and are applying the hair principle to getting other stuff to stick. Most recently, MIT researchers been working on a glue-coated polymer that may be used on human skin and organs like a Band-Aid, holding things together that otherwise might leak or split, even inside the body. The technology could possibly replace surgical sutures someday.

Meanwhile, other scientists, at Stanford, have applied the gecko-foot model to a robot they hope can be used in search-and-rescue operations. Its feet are lined with a synthetic version of the gecko hairs, and it can creep up and down walls like the real thing (though not quite as nimbly…yet). The robots limbs even mimic the gecko's anatomy.

Now isn't that more impressive than reptilian hip-hop?

-Jennifer S. Holland

Project Runway is over, but thank goodness for Project MOMA.

An extraordinary new show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art shows how scientists are designers too. The show is called “Design and the Elastic Mind,” and it is 3 parts technology, 1 part fashion, and 17 parts crazy.

If you can’t make it to New York for the show’s run (through May 12), here’s a sample of what you’ll be missing, and a “status report” on the products.

NON-STOP SHOES. They’re sneakers, finished in red horse hair and reflective plastic film. I really don’t want to use the “f” word but I can’t help myself – they’re totally fierce. But the fiercest thing of all is the technology these shoes are said to possess. They contain some kind of device that will capture and store the energy you put out all day long. You know, when you leave your desk to walk to the bathroom or run out to buy a mid-afternoon Red Bull. At the end of the day you can hook up the shoes to a special device that will harvest the stored energy and use it to power your home electronica. Status report: The MOMA exhibit did not explain exactly how these shoes work or when they will be on the shelf at Payless.

VICTIMLESS LEATHER. Dilemma: You love the look of leather but don’t want animals to give up their lives so you can have a hot new coat. Solution: Victimless leather! Here’s the theory: A “living layer” of animal tissue, grown in vitro and fed by a nutrient bath, could grow into a leather garment! No animals will be harmed. Status report: There is a prototype featuring a wee leather coat, from the so-called “Tissue and Art Project” at an Australian laboratory.

BEE VASE.  We appreciate all the honey, but why can’t bees work harder for us? A scientist created a scaffold that enabled bees to build a honeycomb in the shape of a lovely vase. What comes from flowers ends up creating a vessel for flowers! Status report: Totally real. The vase is on display. I’d pay $19.99 for it in a heartbeat.

PERSONAL IRRIGATOR. This cool white network of PVC pipes blow out “marine mineral concentrates” that will allegedly improve your immune system (don’t ask me how) and “the body’s elimination functions.” Plus, I bet you’ll always feel like you’re at the seashore from those salty minerals. Sweet! Status report: A French designer is working with biologists and others to produce a variety of devices that improve your “personal environment.”

DOG COMMUNICATOR. What does your dog really mean when it wags its tail? An LED light, calibrated to the connection between wpm (that’s wags per minute) and canine desires will spell out in red lights what a dog wants: 55 wpm means “WALKIES!” And 90wpm: “I REALLY LOVE YOU.” Awww, Fido! You’re the best. Status report: Two British designers created a prototype as part of the “Augmented Animals project.” No word on how they determined the meaning of wags per minute.

The museum shares this amazing stuff online, too.

P.S. Dear Project Runway designer Chris March: There’s a “Cotton thread and human hair” necklace created in Spain in 1996. So you’re not so weird after all!

-Marc Silver