WHAT THE CRAP?: The BELIEVE System? "Biometric Enrollment, Locally stored Information and Electronic Verification of Employment." See, I wanted to think the horrible (and I hate to use this adjective, since it's a crazy right-winger favorite, but it fits) Orwellian government acronyms were just part of the Bush administration's general mendacity. But no! Barry O is also good at Scrabble! Or something.

Acronyms aside--do we really need another goddamned hassle just to get to work every day? And one more stupid thing for law enforcement to pick on us about? I'm sure that last one marks me as an OMG PARANOID RIGHTWINGER, but whatever.

TAKING THE EPISTEMIC CLOSURE OLD SCHOOL--NAY, ANCIENT SCHOOL: The godfather of epistemic closure linked to this on twitter: Plato, "Gorgias" & 'epistemic closure.' Here's a Manzigate-relevant sample:

I don’t think that Mark Levin is a psychopath, or even that he’s lying, just that it’s beside the point if he is. His job isn’t truth- it’s persuasion. The problem is the cross-odds: the Expert uses debate as a means of arriving at truth, but the Orator uses debate to persuade others of their position, regardless of its truth. When political movements start to treat Orators as Experts- or really as their superiors since that they get ‘better numbers’- it’s because they see persuasion- that is, power- as being roughly interchangeable with truth. ‘Epistemic closure’, I think, is really this problem of scale- an inability to tell the higher from the lower.

BIG TEN EXPANSION TALK: Heating up today. I hate using a tweet as a source--so let's just agree this is just pie-in-the-sky talk. The Tom Dienhart tweet:

The Big Ten divisions: Syra, Pitt, Rut., Penn St.--Mich., Wisc., Mich. St., Mnn.--Ohio St., Pur., IU, Ill./North.--MU, Iowa, Neb., Ill./NU.

That's four four-team division in a new Big Ten Plus Six. Holy cow! It's really turning out to be the case that the biggest mistake the Big East made was not admitting Penn State when Penn State wanted to be in. A mistake made in the earliest days of the conference, and it could end up killing the BE.

The other notable thing--which unlike that tweet, involves actual school representatives speaking on the record--is Randy Edsall saying the Big East football coaches have been asking the conference to tell Notre Dame to either join the conference in all sports or get out of the conference, and (this is me thinking out loud now, not Edsall) thus preempting the Big Ten from taking Big East football schools. Since all those Notre Dame sports would have to go somewhere, and it's not like they don't fit in the Big Ten, or the Big Ten hasn't coveted them for years, AAU membership or not.

BENEFITS OF HAVING LIVED IN RUSSIA IN THE LATE 90S: You can make a comment like this:

 The reality, of course, is that this is a make-or-break moment for Goldman, Sachs. It just may be that the Democrats, after years of intimate partnership with this firm, have finally decided to “go in a different direction” and cut Goldman loose, purely for political reasons. A close friend of mine from Russia points out that there are parallels here to Putin’s ascension to power, when a rookie president pushed into his seat by a gang of oligarchs decided upon election to whack the most obviously odious of the bunch — Bank Menatep’s Mikhail Khodorkovsky — in order to firm up his “reform” credentials and, politically speaking, put himself on the other side the obscene corruption of the Yeltsin era.

And make me think--hey, maybe Taibbi's onto something there.

HEY YEAH: Doesn't Oath Keeper commandment number two:

 [Oath Keepers must refuse] to conduct warrantless searches of the American people, their homes, vehicles, papers, or effects

...make the Arizona law unenforceable by an Oath Keeper? Or do you say to yourself, "Well--I won't know if I'm searchin' a Merriken or not unless I search 'em, right?" And then if you find yourself one of them there ee-legal foreigners, then you've done right. If they were constitutionally-protected Americans, then I guess you do ten Hail Marys to the Oath Keeper God and continue your day.

I MEAN WE'RE ALL AWARE OF THIS: That the Arizona law says it's only going to be applied during "lawful contact," but that means the cops will just make up any fool thing, Nice to see someone in Arizona law enforcement make that point, though.

GREECE UPDATE: Edward Harrison. Yeah, don't let the stock market fool you, we are not out of the bad times, and I don't think we will be anytime soon.

RETROACTIVE MEDAL COUNT NEWS: China stripped of 2000 bronze team gymnastics medals for using underage athletes--so Team USA is on the podium! U-S-A!

THIS MUST BE PART OF THAT TRIUMPH OF GEEK CULTURE: That Jim Henley talks about sometimes: Republicans retconning their speeches.

INSERT W.C. FIELDS OR P.T. BARNUM OR H.L. MENCKEN QUOTE HERE: Of course you knew this, but there's cash in being a Tea Party huckster. Via Digby via Newshoggers.

RANDOM THOUGHT, OFFERED WITHOUT LINKS OR RESEARCH: Let's assume the Arizona immigration law is the first volley of the fall elections, conceived of in the dark bowels of GOP headquarters. Why does the GOP still think this is a winning issue for them? It never ever works.

COMING TO TERMS WITH ONE'S AUDIOSURF HANDICAP: This thread confirms what I already thought: I play Vegas because it's the easiest to learn and has the largest luck component, so you don't have to be a super-skilled pattern-matcher to be competitive. Lots of discussion there about it being overpowered, which I haven't noticed since I never become the champion of a competitive song by a large number of points. Thus my baseline Audiosurf skillset must be somewhat above average, but not really world-class, or even nation-class.

IN PRAISE OF OLD-FASHIONED LUGGAGE: I sooo wish I had the suitcase in this post. Checking around, though, Globe-Trotter is a luxury good, and priced that way. I will have to stick with the red single-handle Samsonite valise I got at Goodwill.

SHAME-BASED POLICY: MattY argues for something like it. I think this is why Goldman's image is so rapidly eroding--they've lost the ability to experience shame.

VEGETARIAN THEORY, WITH DARBY CONLEY: Today's Get Fuzzy:



Now I swear I am not trying to troll you, O Internet, but I am curious about this--what do committed, meat-is-murder vegetarians feed their cats? I mean they're obligate carnivores, right? Meat is what they eat. I guess you could do dry food only (though most dry food seems to contain animal product) but that's supposed to do a number on their adorable little kidneys. And I ask these questions as someone who is sympathetic to the vegetarian position, but is sort of a big hypocrite (read: loves his pork roll.)

EDIT: Direct link to the comic since it's getting cut off on the right.

AND YOUR LAST STRAW OF THE DAY: Tea Partiers invite Joe Arpaio, lose Radley Balko. Me, they lost right from the initial Rick Santelli commentary.

From the article Radley linked to:

Several large signs at the tea party urged Arpaio to run for governor. Arpaio emphasized he’s talked about a gubernatorial campaign for several consecutive election cycles, only to hold a press conference to say he won’t run.
He’ll announce a decision for this year’s governor’s race in about two weeks. Arpaio gave mixed messages Thursday, saying his wife has supported the idea for the first time. Arpaio said he’s certain he’d win if he ran.
The sheriff then said it would be hard to leave the operation he’s headed since first being elected in 1992.
“Why would I want to be the governor?” Arpaio said. “I can lock up the governor if I want to.”

Ugh, especially that last line.

CATCHING UP WITH EPISTEMIC CLOSURE: Noah Millman from a few weeks ago. (Via DougJ.) And of course the Julian Sanchez epilogue.

ASTROTURF IN EVERYTHING: It may not surprise you to learn that Stop Too Big To Fail may not be an authentically liberal movement.

DEPARTMENT OF UNDERREPORTED CENSUS ISSUES: Yeah, why can't we check "Taiwanese"?

DEPARTMENT OF PUTTING BOOKMARKS IN A PLACE WHERE I CAN ALWAYS FIND THEM: Two discussion topics--here and here--about underappreciated/underhyped science fiction authors. Has already introduced me to M.A. Foster's The Transformer Trilogy (nothing to do with Cybertron) and the first three Liaden Universe novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (and I'm enjoying both.)

ACTUAL USEFUL FINANCIAL REFORM: Could include free credit scores. Because--you know--they are our scores.

AND GOODWIN LIU COULD BE MORE NEUTRAL THAN SWEDEN: And the Gooper narrative would not change.

MAKING ME NOT SO NOSTALGIC FOR MY RALPH PETERS FANDOM OF EARLY 2002: Is Larison's Quote of the week. Those were strange times...

FROM THE MOUTHS OF JUST PAST BABES: Those crazy Tea Party interviewin' college kids:

"CNN, like Fox News and MSNBC, should be largely dismissed as serious sources of news," said Whiteside, "as these outlets are all in the market of selling journalism through personalities, talking haircuts who report as much on what each other are saying as they do on reality. We could gather similarly substance-less interviews from people whose primary news source is Ed Schultz, but until those people gather with misspelled signs to protest policies they don't understand, we have no reason to."

THE DEATH OF CARL MACEK: Franklin Harris gives us his appreciation. Growing up I'm pretty sure I had no idea--though maybe I suspected--that Robotech was cobbled together from entirely different Japanese shows. And we'll probably never see its like again--we have too much information now to credibly splice unrelated continuities into something new. There's nothing mysterious about Japanese animation anymore, since we have so much of it, which is part of Franklin's point. And the distribution channels for foreign culture in general are obviously much, much better established. Robotech is the last of its kind. (Voltron also put together two different shows--lion Voltron and vehicle Voltron--but the continuities were kept separate, they were just two teams operating at the same time in different parts of the universe. Robotech turned its three shows into a generational saga.)

Macek also founded Streamline, which released Akira with the beautiful, superior original dub. One that was less true in meaning but more true in feeling. Wish we still had dubs like that in anime, instead of the similar-sounding casts we have (which I know is for budget reasons, it's easier to hire poor actors in Vancouver than established Hollywood voices.) Bringing Robotech and Akira to America is a heck of a resume.

YOUR FELIX SALMON TWITTER FIND OF THE DAY: Time magazine using the word "bankster" in 1933.

A VAT TAX?: Worse than Bush! Seriously, Dubya would get reamed for a tax this regressive. Believe Barry also deserves a reaming for bringing it up.

YOU KNOW, I PRETTY MUCH THINK THE GEICO GECKO IS OVEREXPOSED (NOW EDITED FOR READING COMPREHENSION): And possibly the whole concept is not as funny as it used to be. But firing him because he crank called freaking Tea Partiers is kind of the last straw for me. I mean come on. They're going to hate you anyway, Geico! Buffett is one step from Soros for these people.

Bonus: Some Larison on the Tea Party and their incoherent love for Palin

EDIT: It's not the gecko getting fired, it's the voiceover guy at the end of every Geico commercial. Still horseshit, obviously.

YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE LIFE JUST SPONTANEOUSLY AROSE OUT OF THE PRIMORDIAL SOUP???: Well, yes. (Naming our earliest molecular ancestors "Ida" and "Luca" seems like a case of questionable science naming though.)

I'M SURE THIS WILL NOT BE NEWS TO ANY XBOX 360 OWNER WITH A HEADSET: Males treat games as social competitions. Xbox Live seems to bring out the primate in many people...

OH SUPREMES, NEVER CHANGE: And they never will:

The first sign was about midway through the argument, when Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. - who is known to write out his opinions in long hand with pen and paper instead of a computer - asked what the difference was “between email and a pager?”
Other justices’ questions showed that they probably don’t spend a lot of time texting and tweeting away from their iPhones either.
At one point, Justice Anthony Kennedy asked what would happen if a text message was sent to an officer at the same time he was sending one to someone else.
“Does it say: ‘Your call is important to us, and we will get back to you?’” Kennedy asked.
Justice Antonin Scalia wrangled a bit with the idea of a service provider.
“You mean (the text) doesn’t go right to me?” he asked.

Yeah, these are the people I want deciding privacy policy for decades to come. Via Julian Sanchez's Twitter. Roberts' quote in particular...I mean just wow.

WILL NO ONE DEFEND SANDWICHES MADE ENTIRELY OF PROTEIN?: Matt Yglesias rises to the defense of the Double Down. Umm, a qualified defense. If Yum! Brands had been smarter they would have released this when the Atkins craze was at its peak. Now they're stuck with marketing it as an exercise in willful gluttony, perhaps hoping the health police will call in their SWAT teams and they'll get ever more publicity.

MORE ON THE PEOPLE VS THE SQUID: Bond Girl breaks down Goldman's response to the SEC.

I am somehow unsurprised to note that even now the Republicans think it's a good idea to be pro-squid.

HOLY CRAP: Asus really is releasing wood-paneled notebooks. Exactly what the Professor would have made if they were doing Gilligan's Island today! Asus really does try hard to differentiate itself from the other laptop makers, I find, first with the Eee and now this. Not that this isn't a silly idea--but it might be a wondefully silly idea, instead of a head-smackingly silly idea.

BUT, LIKE PEOPLE, SOME LOBBYISTS ARE JUST JERKS: "Why are financial lobbyists so rude?" asks one of The Economist's pseudonymous columnists. One wonders if the biggest jerks are drawn to that work, or lobbying for hedge funds makes one a jerk. Chicken or the egg and all that.

MASHUP THEORY: Liam McGranahan did his dissertation on mashups. An enjoyable and interesting read thus far.

NEUROSIS IS THE DIVINE RIGHT OF ALL PRIMATES: Apes suffer self-doubt.

THE BIOLOGY OF SOCIAL FEAR: Article in Nature suggesting that children with Williams syndrome do not form racial stereotypes, yet they form gender stereotypes. Via Radley Balko. Interesting stuff, that I wish people would not dismiss out of hand because it doesn't match up with their ideas of how racism happens. It doesn't prove anything either, of course, at this stage--Williams sufferers have a lot of things different from the baseline, not just the lack of fear.

Idly this paragraph from the NYT article above amused me:

Williams syndrome was first identified in 1961 by Dr. J. C. P. Williams of New Zealand. Williams, a cardiologist at Greenlane Hospital in Auckland, noticed that a number of the hospital’s young cardiac patients were small in stature, had elfin facial features and seemed friendly but in some ways were mentally slow. His published delineation of this syndrome put Dr. Williams on the map — off which he promptly and mysteriously fell. Twice offered a position at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., he twice failed to show, disappearing the second time, in the late ’60s, from London, his last known location, with the only trace an unclaimed suitcase later found in a luggage office.

Also idly I wonder why Abin Sur's ring didn't find a person with Williams.

ORIGINAL INTENT, OCCASIONALLY: Interview discussing what the founders really thought about corporations. Via DougJ.

MASHUPS AS ACTS OF MUSICAL RECYCLING: Note DJ BC's Jam on Sesame Street. I don't think I can listen to the original Newcleus song at this point, but the lyrics remain strong (they have that Superman reference that I guess everyone was doing at the time), and affixing them to something familiar like the Sesame Street theme gives them new life. (I know the idea of a Sesame Street mashup might be a little too cutesy for some, but if you can take it, give it a listen.)

AND THE GREAT LIBERTARIAN WAR OF APRIL, 2010 RAGED ON: John Holbo wades in.

YOUR LITERAL LOL POST OF THE DAY: Gawker discovers Eliot Spitzer's three prostitute day:

Even more explosively, Rough Justice claims that Mario Cuomo knew about Spitzer's three-a-day habit:

"You don't understand," Cuomo finally declared, his voice quavering with emotion. "He's unfit to be governor. He's a bad man."
Dopp was shocked. Why was Cuomo saying this? Was it because of how Eliot had financed his old campaigns?
"No, it's about more than that," Cuomo cryptically replied, according to Dopp. "It's about the relationship between a man and a woman." He wouldn't go any further.

Interestingly, Cuomo reportedly said the same thing when someone told him that Avatar was "about the environment."

The last line just kills me.

CHINA AS A NEW (AND BETTER) IMPERIALIST: In The Atlantic. It goes something like this:

In its recent approach to Africa, China could not be more different from the West. It has focused on trade and commercially justified investment, rather than aid grants and heavily subsidized loans. It has declined to tell African governments how they should run their countries, or to make its investments contingent on government reform. And it has moved quickly and decisively, especially in comparison to many Western aid establishments. Moyo’s attitude toward the boom in Chinese business in Africa is amply revealed by the name of a chapter in her book: “The Chinese Are Our Friends.” Perhaps what Africa needs, she notes, is a reliable commercial partner, not a high-minded scold. And perhaps Africa should take its lessons from a country that has recently pulled itself out of poverty, not countries that have been rich for generations.

Have heard musings like this before, suggesting that when China takes over it'll be fairly hands off. Maybe we'll still get to play global cop! And the global hegemony will be shared between an economic power and a military power. Yeah, wonderful.

MORE ON JAPAN: D has good followup to the earlier-linked van Wolferen article.

TALES OF THE CHICAGO RASPUTIN: And his dealings with a fairly loathsome hedge fund. I am not a Rahm hater exactly, I just think he's sort of terrible (if that makes sense) and you can tell an O-bot from a O-borg (like a cyborg? part bot, part human? no? maybe?) by how willing they are to go to bat for the guy.

SOMETIMES OUR HELPFUL LITTLE ENDOSYMBIONTS AREN'T SO HELPFUL: Now there's a fix for that! (A way to take out a nucleus and transplant it into an egg with healthy mitochondria.)

ROUGHING THE HOLDER: Actually saw this called in the Rush-Gladiators game from Friday, and I can't decide if it's a legit rule or just something the official said instead of "unnecessary roughness." The Internet is providing me with ambiguous information--this NFL page mentions simulating roughing by the holder as a penalty, but not roughing the holder itself. It occurs to me that it is a pretty good rule, since a holder is in a vulnerable position like the other protected positions. Just surprised it doesn't get called more often--maybe you have to be taking a really weird dive for the ball to actually hit the holder.

SET IT OFF: Julian Sanchez seems to have sparked a debate here. Meanwhile even tremendously silly posts can lead to entertaining discussion.

UH OH: Another new Godzilla movie in the works. American-financed but it looks like they're taking an appropriately lo-fi approach. Approach with caution anyway.

STUMBLING TOWARDS JAPANESE DEMOCRACY: Karel van Wolferen thinks we're in a crucial period for Japan to really move past one-party rule. Or rule by the unelected Yamagata institutions. Via Japan without the sugar.

This part here reminded me of somebody:

A new consciousness had spread through the public in 1993. Drastic changes were not only desirable but also possible. It became common for prominent political figures, commentators and businessmen, to reiterate in their speeches and writing the desirability of fundamental political reform. Such a promise seemed to come close to fulfillment with the surprise election of Koizumi as president of the Jiminto (LDP). But he, the first celebrity and TV star prime minister of Japan, turned out to be only a fake reformer, thus proving the point that the Jiminto with all its encrusted relationships and habits would have to be shoved aside for attempting a truly new beginning in Japanese politics.

(Still don't hate Barry O. Still think anyone saying worse than or as bad as Bush is insane. Style is substantial, and he at least has style. Still mistrust most of his opponents. But daaaamn he hasn't changed too much that needed changing.)

FACEBOOK, THE MODERN WAY TO PEN-PAL: Use a German-language app to confirm your allegiance to Stuttgart (land of your great-grandmother's people.) Receive a new German friend in return! The language gap may prevent a deeper friendship, methinks.

RANDOM SUNDAY FOOTBALL THOUGHT: This country desperately needs intercollegiate arena football as a spring sport. I mean the pageantry alone of the SEC schools would be tremendous. And it would give them and other football-first schools something for their players to do in the spring, or a place to work out their junior and/or marginal players, or provide another revenue stream. You don't think Alabama fans would sell out some basketball arena five times to see minor football with the Crimson Tide label? I think they would!

Idly I also wonder if arena football is significantly cheaper than outdoor football, and if this might be a way of getting universities who dropped their football programs as they got too expensive back into the sport. A world without any kind of Hofstra football is not a world I like living in.

NERDRAGE CONFESSIONS: Properly considered, perhaps all time spent video gaming is time misspent. But no time feels more misspent then when you start off thinking, "Okay, I have ten more minutes--let me get in a little more of this activity." But then, because you're rushing, or the video game gods hate you, you start failing. Failing where things had been easy before! And ten minutes turn into twenty, and then thirty, and as you're counting the time spent compounded with the bitter bitter failure the nerdrage sets in, and you have to restrain yourself from destroying your controller/handheld. That sort of time spent really feels like time wasted. It gnaws at you, squandering moments of your existence in such a fashion. But you carry on! The games almost always get easier.

THE NEWEST CAN'T-MISS INVESTING ADVICE: Buy what you hate! Barry could probably get a book out of that just based on the title alone.

THE LATEST IN COLD WAR NOSTALGIA: Rush 'N Attack returns. This'll tide you over until that John Milius-developed shooter comes out. Wherein--and I shit you not--North Korea successfully invades the United States. Every improbable bit of breast physics in Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive combined is still far more realistic than that idea.

ONE DESPERATE CORPORATE PITCHMAN: I didn't even remember Earl Woods was dead! So yes, the nation's foremost former Buick salesman thought it appropriate to use his father's voice to begin his image-rehabilitation campaign. The image that was destroyed when it turned out he had lots and lots of sex with women who weren't his wife. The image that was solely used, again, to sell products--Tiger was always dareIsay Barry O.-like in his ability to be both inoffensive and hyper-famous at the same time. Which is perfect for selling anything! Who knows, perhaps the elder Woods would have approved of this, his son's desperate attempt to go back to being a top-level celebrity endorser.

(Probably not making my core point clear, which is that everything we knew about Tiger Woods pre-lechery was from television commercials, since he was never self-revealing in interviews and such. That's why this scandal is so fascinating, since it involves a guy who sold stuff using an incredibly bland image matched with once-in-a-generation golf skills. Now his image is decidedly unbland, and yet he still wants to pitch stuff.)

THE MORAL OF FRED HILL: If the only reason your university is keeping you employed is an onerous buyout clause in your contract, it would be best to not mouth off in public venues. (This is in the same evolutionary tree as the Moral of Mike Leach, I think. Not the same species obviously.)

CONFEDERATE HISTORY THE LATEST STUPID REPUBLICAN CULTURAL WEDGE ISSUE?: That's my guess. (And this is probably my one bloggable thought for the day.)

LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE CONTINUES: No worse day than a day after a Duke basketball national championship, especially over a team that could have finally broken the streak of BCS conference schools winning the title we've been mired in forever. There is no hated/hateful team on the Yankees-Lakers-Cowboys with a larger gap between their street-level support and their media overexposure than Duke basketball. I mean I'm pretty sure they have the least amount of fans of the tobacco road schools. (Heard that somewhere once. It certainly feels true.)

CORPORATE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS WHOSE SUCCESS I DO NOT BEGRUDGE: Kevin Butler is a good pitchman. Still think his initial Pedroia-mocking was his best moment.

IN THE FUTURE WE WON'T EVEN NEED OXYGEN: Like these newfound little metazoans.

HOLY COW: They actually rescued those miners in China! Man, these kind of disasters almost never have happy endings.

DUKE VS BUTLER: About the easiest decision you can have in sports as far as rooting goes. Easier than, say, Colts vs Saints last Superbowl. Easier than a Cubs-Yankees World Series. The only thing I can think of that might be like it would be something with not a lot of American emotional resonance: Manchester United versus some random minnow in the FA Cup final, Plymouth Argyle or somebody. Or possibly a Clippers-Lakers Western Conference Final (since there's nobody in the Eastern Conference as hateful as the Lakers.)

HAPPY EASTER: Making mini reubens, jalapeno poppers and baked brie. Appetizers are my role in the family holiday cycle.

BEST SIDEWAYS CRITIQUE OF MESSIANIC GADGETISM YET: From the comments thread of the aforementioned Doctorow post: "So is there an accessory for mounting your iPad on your Segway yet?"

ARENA FOOTBALL: A NEW BEGINNING: Started last night. I still can't figure out the jack linebacker rules. And I keep thinking a kickoff that goes through the uprights should be a point or something--why not have a little Canada-like flavor in your alternative football?

IPAD APRIL FOOL'S JOKES THAT WOULD MAKE ME BUY AN IPAD: I soooo very want an iCade:

And then I read the article and have hope:

Though the product is actually a clever (and cruel) April Fool's joke, Ty Liotta, ThinkGeek's merchandising manager and head of custom product design, told Ars that it could very well end up being a real product. "People would really like to buy it, and we have had many people e-mailing and requesting it be created," Liotta said. "Our customers know we have turned April Fools items into real products before, so they know there is the potential there."

ANOTHER IPOD NEGATIVE NANCY: Cory Doctorow speaks for me regarding this issue. Or at least gives me more justification for my dislike.

DEPARTMENT OF INTRIGUING VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENTS: A promising licensed Peanuts game. Ah, I remember playing Snoopy vs the Red Baron on the 2600 back in the day. Good times--though it shared the problem of most old-school games in that it had no ending (or I was never good enough to get a high enough score to reach the killscreen.) Though as someone in that comments thread points out--you wonder if Sparky Schulz would have given his blessing to a game where his character models are shooting at each other.

SONY REMOVES LINUX SUPPORT FROM PS3: Hacker vows revenge. Not that I used Linux much on my PS3 (had it on the original 60 gb hardrive, never reinstalled it when I upgraded--it was sort of a pain to get working right) but the dude has his points about Sony taking away features from the PS3, and not adding too much new (Netflix was one; I guess they added more support for different video files but I still have troubles. The best PS3 addon I've come across is the freeware PS3 Media Manager, which is not a Sony joint.)

APPLE: Is a lifestyle consulting company with an attached manufacturing arm. Like Amway is a lifestyle consulting company with an attached catalog shopping arm. Yeah.

OF COURSE I WOULD GLADLY ACCEPT A HUNDRED APRIL FOOL'S SPOOFS: If someone would please rid me of any and all stories that involve the iPad, especially any using the descriptor "laptop-killer." Who is this for? That segment of the population with magically greaseless pores on their fingertips? Am I the only one who doesn't eat while he surfs? Oh, and for god's sake: "The browser lacks tabs." Does it even come with a stand or anything? I mean holding a screen is not my preferred way to watch a film.

YEAH: Just don't read the Internet today. Everybody's a comedian.