Sunday, April 30, 2006

"Are You a Registered Republican?"

That's what the nice candidate running for state senate called out to me as I exited the Safeway. He had a little table with a chair and a sign and some literature. I didn't get a good look at him; white guy in a suit. Didn't get the name.
 
"Yes, I am," I called back as I strode across the parking lot, heading straight for my car. Unspoken - because I didn't want to take the time - was "and thus, I have a job and I'm very busy and I don't have time to chat with a political candidate."
 
Valuable lesson for people buttonholing me in public:
 
You only get one shot. Ask the question you need to ask, not a prefatory question. I'll answer your prefatory question, because I'm polite, and then I'll move on. If you want my vote so you can stop the invading Mongol horde, you pretty much need to say "Mister, I want your vote so I can stop the invading Mongol horde!" If I am also worried about the Mongols, maybe I'll stop and listen to you bloviate. But try and save yourself time by wasting mine ("let's prescreen for registered voters, and let's prescreen for Republicans"), and you'll get nothing. I've got stuff to do.
 
Although, admittedly, not so much stuff that I can't take a moment to blog about it. But that's different - it happens at my convenience, not his.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Saturday Puppy Blogging



His widdle paws say "cute"...but his eyes say "I will cut you for putting me in this suit, you son of a *****".

Attack of the Ants

A few days ago my wife made some really outstanding chocolate cookies. Last night I had a few (*cough*) in my office. Apparently some crumbs went "rogue" and fell, unnoticed, behind some boxes scattered on the floor.

Today I grabbed a sandwich for lunch. A green pepper fell out of it and was on the floor; when I noticed it had fallen, I leaned down to pick it up and recoiled - ants! Dozens of 'em, Mr. Rico!

I prepared to engage when I realized - one or two random ants finding my green pepper, I could see. But it had only been there a few minutes. Where had they come from? I cast my gaze farther afield - and there, swarming in their hundreds, were little ant-mountains on top of the cookie fragments. Ewww!

This is why God invented little handy battery-powered vacuum cleaners, however. A few minutes of cleaning (which the floor needed, anyway) and the little ant raiding party was no more. I'll be engaging in tactical ant-squashing over the next few hours, undoubtedly, as ants-come-lately follow the scent trail to where the cookies used to be. Wish me luck as I commit to battle.

We fight the ant infestation we have, not the ant infestation we'd like to have.

UPDATE:

Q. What does my office have in common with the Pink Panther movies?
A. "Dead ant, dead ant, dead ant dead ant dead ant dead ant dead ant...deadantdeadantdeadantant"

UPDATE 2:

A small squad of six highly-trained, stealthy ants crept onto the battlefield. Ignoring the corpses of their fallen brothers-in-arms, they ant-handled one last remaining crumb onto their collective shoulders and started maneuvering it out of the conflict zone. They didn't see the shadow looming. They didn't see the pencil descending like the hand of an angry God. All they saw was the carpet suddenly looming large as they were crushed, as though beneath the awful weight of their own crime.

Don't steal my food.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Johnny Cash Kicks A**

I've been listening to Johnny Cash's last "real" album, American IV. If you haven't heard his version of "Hurt" (a song Trent Raznor of NIN wrote), you need to hear it. It may be the most raw and powerfully emotional song I have ever heard. Cash was the rare performer who never stopped developing, but in his case, it's emotional layers that he added, not technical virtuosity. (Well, maybe he developed more virtuosity too, but my uneducated ear is not going to pick up on it.)

Put it another way: as you know, I'm a cold-hearted cynical bastard, but I hear his lifelong pain distilled into that song and I just want to cry and cry (as the little one says when confronted with a tragedy on the order of not getting applesauce with dinner).

Members of Congress Arrested at Darfur Protest

Five Democratic members of Congress were briefly arrested at a protest in front of the Sudanese Embassy. Six citizen activists, along with Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston), Jim McGovern (D-Worcester, Mass.), Jim Moran (D-Virginia) and John Olver (D-Massachusetts), were taken into custody for blocking the entrance to the embassy as part of protests against the ongoing genocide in Darfur.
 
Sudan is governed by a military dictatorship which has been committing an ongoing genocide against non-Arab citizens of the African nation. The sitation in Darfur appears to be deteriorating, with hundreds of thousands of people being driven from their homes by government-allied gangs of brigands. Some aid agencies have reported being forced to leave the country, and the United Nations claims that if the aid network in Sudan collapses, as many as 100,000 people per month could begin dying from starvation, in addition to those being directly killed by the Sudanese state.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Circumcision and Monogamy Most Effective Against HIV Transmission

Very interesting study done in the field in Africa.

Get The Door...It's Dominoes

Pennsylvania man uses car to deliver pizza AND corpses. Now there's somebody who really has to keep his two jobs straight in his mind...

Britney Fat-Bashed at Celeb Site

This video shows Britney Spears practicing dance moves for a new song of hers. The video is unremarkable. It shows a pretty woman who has had a baby doing some dance exercises. Every straight man I've ever known would think "that's a nice looking baby mama there, that is". 
 
What's remarkable (but sadly, not unusual) is the incredible fat-bashing going on in the comment thread attached to the video.
 
"Britney should give up on trying to look sexy and just embrace her new image of 'beached whale'"
 
"Big booty = more balance for spins...staple the stomach, please"
 
"Oh my god how much do you guys think she weighs- seriously.... I'm gonna guess 140.... that's being nice."
 
"Brit's doing a great job of getting as fat and foul as Anna was prior to the latest drug addictions."
 
"It's like watchin a WHALE chase a TicTac! "THERE SHE BLOWS""
 
And so on.
 
I hold no brief for Britney Spears or for celebrity culture in general. But it is sickening to see the contempt that these people have no compunction about pouring out in a public forum. What kind of mentality thinks it appropriate to crap on other human beings like this? Knock it off, knuckleheads; you're forcing me into agreement with moonbats, and I hate being in agreement with moonbats.

Today In History - the Sultana Disaster

On this date in 1865, the steamboat Sultana, transporting formerly-captured Union soldiers being repatriated home after the end of the Civil War, exploded, killing 1700 people in the worst maritime disaster in US history.
 
Although at the time the disaster received only limited press attention (Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated only 12 days previously, and war-hardened Americans were accustomed to seeing gory casualty figures), over time the tragedy has been memorialized all through the Mississippi valley.
 
Perhaps the most compelling element of the Sultana story is the fact that after the explosion, some 500 survivors, most terribly burned, were taken in and nursed by the ordinary citizenry of Memphis - people who had been the enemies of these soldiers just weeks before. One speculates about how much goodwill must have been generated in northern homes when their wounded finally arrived, bearing tales of the kindness and charity of the people of Memphis.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Let The Iraqi People Vote

When should the US get out of Iraq? When the Iraqis ask us to, of course. This proposal by Jonah Goldberg for a referendum on withdrawal is a darn good idea. It undercuts the antiwar movement here and in Europe, it legitimizes the presence of the troops, and it injects a much-needed dose of honesty and realism into the Iraqi political process.
 
The only modification I would make is that the referendum should be annual, from now until such time as the Iraqis vote "yes" on withdrawal. That sets up a timeline and a process, and also creates political viability for the "the Americans should go, but not quite yet" position.

Ronald Bailey on Peak Oil

Good analysis and overview of the peak oil nonsense.

Stop Genocide

Ampersand of Alas! and Creative Destruction lists some suggestions for stopping the ongoing atrocities in Darfur. They are all very nice suggestions and no doubt seem very effective in the parallel world inhabited by the earnest left. They are good people, the earnest left. God keep them.
 
Here's an idea for stopping genocide. Let's take a page from the history of the last racist imperialists to go around practicing genocide: smash their stuff and kill their thug overlords. I don't know what level of force it would take to persuade/demonstrate to the small tyrants of Africa that maybe peaceful co-existence is better for the actuarial tables. I have my suspicions that it would take a pretty high level, but a level we're capable of achieving.
 
"Never again" implies "whatever it takes". A strong word, "never".
 
One wonders if we're as strong as a word.

I Agree With Ginmar (It Burns!)

...It burns!
 
Ginmar expresses shocked approval for something Glenn Beck said. I agree with both of them; the boys in the Duke case - regardless of what the truth of events proves to be - have proven themselve to be beyond the pale by their behavior.
 
You can't go around hiring escort services and then trying on various "Me? But I'm a Boy Scout!" defenses for size. It doesn't fly.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Avoiding The Charge of Rape

With all the "to avoid being raped" guidelines floating around, it seems only fair to turn the tables around.
If you want to avoid false charges of rape, don't hire escorts for your parties. People whose job involves breaking the law are unlikely to have strong convictions against using the legal system against you if you tick them off.
If you want to avoid false charges of rape, avoid situations where you have 40 guys and 2 girls in the house. Juries who see that situation are inclined to give automatic credence to the view that something untoward was going on, or planned to go on.
If you want to avoid false charges of rape, but you insist on having massive all-guy parties where you hire prostitutes, hire women who you have hired before and know to be trustworthy - and then pay them what you promised to pay them.
If you want to avoid false charges of rape, don't prejudice the community and the neighborhood against you by shouting slurs at the people you've hired in the full sight and hearing of people who already are predisposed not to like you.
If you want to avoid false charges of rape, treat the women in your life as if they were actual human beings, instead of as sex dolls for your employment.

Holocaust Remembrance Day

April 25 is Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorated here with a series of photographs and links. (Warning: disturbing images and text.)
 
All too timely a memorial, as the spectre of another Holocaust looms over the Jewish people.

Monday, April 24, 2006

400-odd Page Rough Draft Done

Whew!

Tomorrow, golf and barbeque and family.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Where's My Omni?

OK, so now that Macs will run Windows XP (and the horsemen of the Apocalypse start idly warming up their chargers), I have a question:
 
Where's my Omni-computer?
 
I now have the theoretical capacity to have a computer that sits on my desk that runs all three of the major operating systems: Windows, Unix, and Macintosh.
 
Someone please make it, put the hardware and software (so it all just works - turn it on and flip a toggle switch) together, and sell it to me.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Threatening Passenger Subdued By Others On Flight

The Fox headline was "Airline Passenger Subdued After Bomb Threat".

I assume that "subdued" is a polite way to say "got three kinds of **** kicked out of him".

Via Instapundit.

Reproductive Rights Now - As Long As I'm Comfortable With It

Jill at Feministe is conflicted about a reproductive right. Some of her commenters are less conflicted - "I'm opposed to surrogacy outright".

Apparently, for at least some of the gals, reproductive rights are an absolute only when they approve.

(H/T GNXP.)

Friday, April 21, 2006

Scott Crossfield, RIP

One of the brave men who pioneered the way into space, dead at 84, the way he wanted to go. Godspeed.

Battle of San Jacinto Day

Today is the 170th anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, in which Texas won independence from Mexico by defeating the armies of General Santa Anna. Go Texas!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

A Moment of Bipartisan Cooperation

Hey, you know what left-wingers and right-wingers can both enjoy? A delicious hot roast beef and melted cheddar sandwich, served on a warm Dutch crunch roll with sauteed onions and peppers, and a cold beer.

Mmmm, good.

(Paid for by the Committe to Boost Beef Sales.)

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Angry People Suck?

Interesting discussion of the contagiousness of emotion, and why surrounding yourself with positive people might be better for you.
 
(So much for blogging!)

Tuesday Kitten Blogging



As always, cheerfully stolen from Kitten Wars.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Don't Question My Patriotism - I'm Busy Doing It For You

Via Instapundit, the sad tale of the cultural evils breathed out by us red-state Americans.

Appalled Beyond Measure

I'm just incoherent with sorrow and anger over this one.

I don't understand how they're ever going to get a jury trial for this man. I could not be in a room with him. Who could be? I can't imagine the discipline it is taking for the police not to just finish him.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Why, Finland? Why?

Finland. Fine nation. Good soldiers; brave fighters. The reindeer are also of high quality.
As a new center for pop videos? Not so much.

Via GNXP.

Happy Easter

and a blessed Passover.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Why "Peak Oil" Is Hooey

and other unorthodoxies.
 
Energy is complex, and I don't want to oversimplify, but I pretty much have to because I don't have the time to write and you don't have the patience to read the 200-page monograph that ought to answer claims "peak oil", energy shortages, and similar bugaboos.
 
First, some descriptions of reality.
 
Are petroleum reserves dwindling? Indubitably. Most likely Thomas Gold is wrong, and we're not laying down new oil beds constantly - so we will run out of oil someday if we pump it to the last drop. (We won't.)
Do we have 20, or 30, or 40 years of oil left, or whatever figure-of-the-day is being bandied about by doomsingers? Hardly.
 
The pace of oil discoveries is dwindling. This is because the low-hanging fruit has been found. Now it starts to get more expensive and more difficult to find each new field - but we are still finding new fields, albeit at a reduced rate.
 
Is China ramping up its oil consumption? Yes, tremendously so. This is actually probably a good thing in terms of the oil economy, as it means there is a new source of demand. The relatively flat level of consumption - we've all got cars, and how many miles can you drive in a year? - has meant stagnation in the development of new oil extraction technologies, because it looked like those technologies wouldn't be needed for a loooooong time. Now it looks like they'll be needed within the time frame that corporations can operate in, so I'd expect to see a big surge in oil shale tech research. (World oil shale and sand reserves are estimated at 14,000 billion barrels. The US has 2,000 billion. If the world uses 10 times the amount of oil it now uses, we run out of oil from shale around 2200 AD.)
 
So the sky is not falling.
 
But for fun, let's pretend that the sky is falling. Let's pretend that all the oil will be gone, not 34 years from now, but 10 years from now. Gas won't be $4 a gallon, it will be $12 a gallon. The moon will be red as blood, and dogs and cats will join in conjugal union. George Lucas will direct a movie that does not suck.
 
Big freaking deal. We find new fuels. Hydrogen vehicles are 5 years from commercially-feasible prototypes, maybe less. In 10 years - let alone 34 - they'll be economically competitive and then some. (In fact, the development of hydrogen technologies is likely to shut down oil production for fuel use long before any shortage.)
 
Hydrogen is an energy distribution technology, of course, not an energy source itself. So that means that development of energy production capacity will be a critical component to making a hydrogen economy work.
 
But energy production capacity is a solved problem. It's not a PERFECT situation, but we know perfectly well how to build the solar plants and the wind farms and the nuke plants and the coal plants and the orbital microwave stations. We just have to do it. We're not doing it now because there isn't a market for the power that those stations will produce - there won't be until we stop burning the oil and start burning the H2. Basically, whether we go hydrogen or develop oil shale is an economic question - which is cheaper, learning to extract oil shale efficiently or building a hydrogen economy. I'm betting H2, as are most oil companies, but we'll see.
 
The hysteria of the oily chicken littles is exactly the same as the hysteria of a teenage kid whose dad is about to retire. "The figures show your income dropping by 50 percent! We'll STARVE TO DEATH! The neighbors will take our furniture! We have no manufacturing base left!" Yeah, but there's a lot of stuff you don't know about, kid. 401(k)s, for starters.
 
We will adjust to changing economic circumstances as time goes on. Those adjustments may sometimes be painful, although there is literally nothing in the energy situation per se that would lead any rational observer to believe there will be pain in this transition. If anything, hydrogen cars are going to be way vrooooooooom cooler than boring gas vehicles.
 
Here's the sentence in oil-is-doomed propaganda that you have to watch for:
 
"...Within the coming few years, the era of cheap unlimited energy is expected to come to a close"
 
That's what this is really all about. The fact that individual people have access to cheap energy that is (practically) unlimited drives a certain species of control freak absolutely insane. People who have access to cheap energy can live out in the wilderness, far away from social control. People who have access to cheap energy aren't afraid of political change. People who have access to cheap energy aren't dependent upon a political class for the necessities of life.
 
Leftoid environmentalists, central planners, and other fans of undemocratic authority have been pounding the "no more cheap energy!" drum for the last fifty years, at least. It's not a prediction for them.
 
It's a policy platform.

Friday, April 14, 2006

I Am Glenn Reynolds' Brother

And I didn't even know it!

The pictures of his bro in these snaps are me, to a T.

If you've been wondering what I look like.

I wear better colored t-shirts, though.

Stifling of Dissent at Northern Kentucky University

"Any violence perpetrated against that silly display was minor compared to how I felt when I saw it."
 
So says the literature professor who apparently led nine female students in tearing down a university-sanctioned display put up by a campus pro-life activist group. She continued "Some of my students felt the same way, just outraged." Outraged? That other people dared to have a pro-life viewpoint? And that they further dared to actually express it?
 
Apparently, the free speech rights of other people don't count for anything, if they make you feel angry or outraged. (Note the contradiction, as well - the display is "silly" when its importance to other people is being deprecated to minimize the offense, but it's an "outrage" when it comes to her feelings.)
 
This is classic. MY feelings are so important that they trump other people's rights. YOUR feelings are so insignificant that I can ignore you. This is the moral calculus possessed by a five-year old.
 
The symbolism of crosses - each of which represented an aborted fetus - being thrown into the garbage can by female students speaks for itself.
 

Highway Thoughts

Coming back from driving my kids to the Denver airport to send 'em back to their biodad until summer, I had two observations.

1) The stretch of I-25 between Denver and Monument is the Ronald Reagan Highway. Every time I enter that stretch of pavement, it seems like the sun shines a little brighter and food tastes a little better.

2) If you're driving 150 miles round-trip, it would be a good idea not to eat a two-pound salad as the snack the night before. Hello, rest stop my old friend; I've come to gross you out again.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Moving Forward on Immigration

Let's move forward on the immigration question. I submit that we should make it an item of national policy that we want to acquire the loyalty and citizenship of the world's brightest and most successful people.
 
Here's how we do it. 

First, we index nations on their level of Western cultural attainment. (Britain is high. Russia is medium. Zimbabwe is low.) That index value would become the base score for immigrants. These numbers should range from 0 to 100. Why this ranking? Because people from Zimbabwe are hard to integrate and people from Britain are easy. We're cherry-picking here - and we're doing it to advance our national interest, not the interests of the people who are immigrating.

To that base score, add bonus points for high educational attainment, high economic attainment, and high scientific/cultural attainment. (25 points per category.) Add bonus points for youth and for number of children (5 points total) and a ten point bonus for English fluency. Have a discretionary 10 points that Congress can use to set priorities. (If you’ll enlist when you get here, we give you 5 points. If you’re a nuclear physicist, that’s worth a bonus 10. And so on.)

So you can have anywhere from 0 to 200 points. For maximum score, be a British millionaire PhD Nobel laureate, 28 years of age with 4 kids, and possessed of whatever skill or attribute is floating Congress' boat this year. Minimum score is to be a destitute Third Worlder with no education or skills, 70 years old, infertile.

Annually, globally rank every immigration applicant in an ordinal list. Ask Congress how many people to let in this year, X. Admit the first X people on the list.

(Lest the heartlessness quotient be too high, I do support a limited number of refugee/hardship admissions as well. Say, 10% of the total, divided among the countries of the globe on the basis of each nation's existing representation in our population and administered at the discretion of the State Department.)

Under this system, once the inevitable bugs are worked out, I'd support a high level of immigration - say, 4 million people per year, maybe more. They would more than pay for themselves, with their existing wealth and their existing skills and talents. Furthermore, their availability to US companies, and their own entrepreneurial activity, would accelerate our economy tremendously.

Hippie Invasion

Get a haircut and a job, punk.

(He's so cute!)

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Woohoo!

They'll be partying in the evidence locker tonight.

An Insight Into the Human Psyche

At toddler gym the other day, Stephanie was asked by the leader/facilitator to "come on over here" for the next programmed event. At the time, Stephanie was playing on the slide by herself. She ignored the first request.

"Stephanie, can you come over here for a minute, please?" said the facilitator. Nothing.

Finally, she looked up. To the world at large she announced, "I don't think I can hear you." And then she returned to her individual play.

I suspect that Stephanie merely vocalized the implicit thought that underlies a great deal of partisan division.

"I don't think I can hear you."

Tuesday Kitten Blogging



Via Kitten War.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Not a Cute Widdle Bunny

This story is boring, but the photo accompanying it is one impressive lepusoid. I wouldn't want to come around a row of corn on a dark night and see that thing nibbling away.

Why Do Men Run Things?

Some interesting thoughts here. (Hint: it's not because we're superior beings.) I think the element most likely to be right is the bit about male variance making male homosocial groupings larger and less internally contentious than female groupings.

Romance Novels Gone Horribly Right

A blogger "reimagines" the romance novel cover.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Punished for Hugging

Unreal.

Stephanie will hug anyone who'll have her. Damned if I'm going to stop her.

Another Nail in My PC Coffin

I'm not a super gamer by any stretch (I prefer games where you stare at a spreadsheet showing the economic performance of your colonies for an hour, then click to advance the turn counter). But this innovation appears to really seal the Mac transition for me.

If it'll run Oblivion it'll run any PC software I need to run.

This Woman is Interesting

I don't know what to make of her. But I like, or am interestingly outraged at, what I've seen so far. Go read!

Iraqi Air Force Sought Volunteers for Suicide Mission Against US Interests

An Iraqi document captured in the fall of Baghdad appears to indicate that the Iraqi Air Force sought volunteers for suicide missions to "liberate Palestine and to strike American interests". The document is a memo, written by Abdel Magid Hammot Ali, the commander of Ali Bin Abi Taleb Air Force Base.
 
An approximate translation of the document reads as follows:
In the Name of God the Merciful The Compassionate

Top Secret

The Command of Ali Bin Abi Taleb Air Force Base

No 3/6/104

Date 11 March 2001

To all the Units

Subject: Volunteer for Suicide Mission

The top secret letter 2205 of the Military Branch of Al Qadisya on 4/3/2001 announced by the top secret letter 246 from the Command of the military sector of Zi Kar on 8/3/2001 announced to us by the top secret letter 154 from the Command of Ali Military Division on 10/3/2001 we ask to provide that Division with the names of those who desire to volunteer for Suicide Mission to liberate Palestine and to strike American Interests and according what is shown below to please review and inform us.

Air Brigadier General

Abdel Magid Hammod Ali

Commander of Ali Bin Abi Taleb Air Force Base

Air Colonel

Mohamad Majid Mahdi

This document section was translated by jveritas of FreeRepublic.

Lasik at Home?

For $100? It's hard to see how this could be real. But it sure looks real.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Boil Him In Oil

Katie Who?

Why in the name of God's green apples am I expected to care about this?
 
Katie Couric's location, activities and intentions are material in two scenarios:
 
1) She is in my presence, interacting with me, and I need to be civilly interested in her life in order to be a decent human being.
 
2) She is being held hostage by terrorists on top of the Empire State Building and Nicholas Cage and Harrison Ford and Bruce Willis are all crawling through the ductwork to rescue her.
 
Otherwise, I don't care where you work, lady. Just get a job and do it, already.

Pedophilia Hysteria May Have Contributed to Child's Death

Four years ago, a two-year old English toddler drowned in a pond near her home after wandering away from a day-care center. A passerby saw her walking along the road but did not stop, fearing that he would be thought an abductor. A tragic story, ably explored by Wendy McElroy.

Web Singer Gets Contract

A woman who sang via the Web from her London flat has signed with a major record label. Sandi Thom, 24, signed with conglomerate RCA/SonyBMG on April 3, 2006, after building a respectable audience of 100,000 daily listeners.
 
I suspect that agile record companies have found their new low-cost method for finding talent: wait for the audience to find it for you.

Self-Parking Cars

As one of the world's truly incompetent parallel parkers, I would buy this technology.

Let Them Starve

Withdraw the law and let the idiots starve to death.

UPDATE: Well, except for the lavish social welfare programs that will keep them alive.

Why Poor Countries Are Poor

Interesting Reason article on Cameroon, and why despite an entrepreneurial spirit and hard work, the country is so desperately poor.
 
(Hint: it isn't because you drive a nice car.)

Humans Are Viruses

Ever wonder where the trope comes from that leftists slash feminists think the human species is worthless and want us to die out?

It comes from people's accurate observations of what they say in unguarded moments.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Sexy TV Leads to Sexy Behavior

...at least, according to this study.

Although the study bolsters my preconceptions - actually, because the study bolsters my preconceptions - I have to wonder about the direction of the causal arrow. If I am starting to get interested in sex, then I'm going to seek out cultural material that has sexual content, to get information. That has to be accounting for some of the connection.

(Which on closer reading I see the story mentions. So never mind.)

Sunday, April 02, 2006

The Joys of Textual Literalism

Stephanie was picking her nose.

"Stephanie, are you digging for gold?"

"No. I'm digging for snot."

Well, OK then.

"Die, Puny Humans"

So says this scientist. You first, doc.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Google Romance Just a Joke

Sorry, lonelyhearts, this is just an April Fool's joke.

Although I don't see why they wouldn't implement such a service. The first line of the joke is empirically true; finding true love really is mostly a search problem. Hooray for the Internets!