Here.

I have no idea what this is, but it’s weird:

I recently started reading Empire by Orson Scott Card. It’s generally vaguely crummy and has had a number of typos, but what’s most distracting is that he spells ‘cookie’ with a ‘y’ and no ‘ie’. Several times. Cooky. Really, who spells cookie that way? When he pluralizes it, he does spell it ‘cookies’, so he’s at least aware of the potential alternative construction.

Yes, the use of the word ‘crummy’ earlier was intentional, though I should have spelled it with a ‘b’.

Jeremiah 10:2-4:

This is what the LORD says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations…
For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest…
They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails…”

In other news, while the Bible may not be a big fan of Christmas, it’s no surprise that Congress is.

Via Athanata and Cynical-C.

I’ll be away from my computer for the next two or three weeks, so there will be very few updates on RumorsDaily. As I’m presently on an airplane, I’ve instructed the robots to give you one last video in celebration of my time away:

The robots might have another post or two in them, but not much. I’ll be back in early/mid January.

Almost every day I reach a point during my shower where I can’t recall whether I have or have not yet washed my hair. I then feel like a moron and proceed to wash my hair, possibly for the second time. I’m curious how often I actually do wash it twice (or if I ever simply forget entirely).

Here’s a text file with every word used in British English, weighted by frequency of usage (more information). Here’s a webpage with a flash interface that provides the same information in a much more useful, interesting format. The two lists do not rank the words in an identical order; I suppose different ranking methodologies were used.

I suspect Troeltsch already has many such lists at his disposal.

Sometimes whining can pay off.

I’m currently in the midst of an Evidence final exam, but I instructed the robots to give you a general impression of what I’m doing. Here, through music and legos, is a seemingly accurate representation of my answer to at least one question on this test:

Incidentally, what I learned in class and what this video teaches are not identical. Who should I trust?

One Supreme Court Justice doesn’t like his job, guess which one.

Via WSJ Law Blog.

Today is the 94^th anniversary of the invention of the crossword puzzle. Go do one.

Slate’s The Explainer’s yearly recap of questions not answered is, as always, entertaining.  Questions that I’d be willing to ponder:

Why don’t we drop medical waste and nuclear waste into active volcanoes, the “ultimate high-temperature incinerators”?

How often are presidents born, and how often do they die? Do they die in bunches, or on average every four years?

When a fly lands on a ceiling, does it execute a barrel roll or an inside loop?

Here’s last year’s list, and the one they actually answered.

I was sincerely disappointed with the first Abbie Hoffman movie.  I’m really hoping that this next one will be better, but I have to admit that I’m somewhat baffled by the visual style.

The Sun puts together a hypothetical Bloomby ‘08 electoral map as part of a larger article about the possibities of the first billion dollar election campaign:

I question a few of these.  Why are Virginia, Nevada and New Mexico out of play?  Why are Montana and Kansas in play?

Taurine, a major in ingredient in most energy drinks, is also a major ingredient in bile.  Delicious.

Clippy is a program based on the infamous MS Office vaguely unhelpful pop-up assistant of yesteryear. This new iteration, however, merely bothers the user indefinitely with messages like:

• It appears you are connected to the Internet.
• I see that you have been using your mouse.
• Your computer seems to be turned on.
• It looks like your keyboard is working correctly.
• I have detected a mouse move, this was normal.
• Your monitor is operational.
• I thought you should know that today is [date].
• I noticed you have Internet Explorer installed on your system. You can use that to find things on the Internet.

Helpful!

Via My Crazy Roommate.

Is it possible to be logged onto Google Talk through Pidgin (nee GAIM), yet prevent non-Google Talk Gmail users from being able to see my away message?

The first comment to this story about a community college setting up a gender-divided “meditation room” for Muslim students made me laugh.

This is my regular Tuesday West Wing clip:

You assign your West Wing clips days of the week?

A few days ago I missed my bus and experienced a strange walk home from Union Station. In the distance were whirling searchlights. This was out of the ordinary.

First, I walked past a building that I walk past frequently. I think it’s either the SEC or the Federal Judiciary Center. The front facade is all glass and the lobby/atrium is open all the way to the roof, so the glass facade is probably 8 stories high. When I walked by the other night there were two guys on a lift inside the building slowly making their way to the ceiling. I found it pretty neat:

Second, I walked by two cops on bicycles who had stopped a group of maybe fifteen yuppies in suits. They were getting a dressing down for drinking what looked like Milwaukee’s Best beer in cans. One of the guys was attempting to take the fall for his girlfriend, claiming it wasn’t her fault she was carrying the beer. Good argument! Then the cop said if he (the cop) wasn’t working, he’d probably be out there carrying around beers in public too. Victory for everyone!

Third, as I was leaving I noticed that I was getting close to the source of the spotlights and took a turn to head in their direction. After a block, I came across this hip, neon business establishment:

That place must be hopping all night long! Classy.

Fourth, I finally found the source of searchlights. It was unexpected:

In an article discussing whether the 2nd Amendment provides protection for individual, or collective gun ownership, the New York Times quotes an unlikely source to support the traditional liberal position that the Constitution only protects gun ownership in the form of regulated militias:

Professor Bogus, a supporter of the collective rights view, said the Parker decision represented a milestone in that strategy. “This is the story of an enormously successful and dogged campaign to change the conventional view of the right to bear arms,” he said.

Professor Bogus? Come on. Was that Bill & Ted’s Constitutional Law professor’s name? Was that really the best you could come up with, New York Times? I can’t believe Fox News doesn’t interview this guy all the time — “And here’s Professor Bogus with the liberal perspective…”

Here’s his picture and resume, for those curious what a Professor Bogus might look like and spend his time on.

An amusing bit from a recent Simpsons episode:

This was a parody/homage/ripoff of someone named Noah doing the same thing.

An NPR reporter recently discovered a bat living in an unlikely crevice in downtown Washington, DC. It’s been identified as a silver haired bat and NPR is currently looking for good naming suggestions.

JunToons are a series of seven cartoons based on the just-widely-released Juno. They may not make all that much sense if you haven’t seen the movie. Watch them after the jump.
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