Potpourri on a Rainy (!) Monday Evening

I DON’T LIKE THIS

1. Running Out The Clock: Ah, unitary executive power — is there any law you cannot simply ignore. See, also, We Have One Week to Save the Grand Canyon. Freaking idjits. Expect more last-second-orgy-of-executive-self-indulgence over the next few months. You thought Clinton’s flurry of pardons was bad?
2. Bush administration okays religious discrimination…: See above. “Law, shmaw … who’s gonna prosecute us?”
3. Financial Crisis: Who is going to bail out the euro?: A very dark schadenfreude courses through me. 
4. AFA Declares Victory Over McDonald’s: Great, another reason not to eat at McDonald’s.
5. Homosexuals should carry warning tattoos, says London…: Not My Anglican Church.
6. Best Buy’s New Tag: How … uninspiring.
7. David Sirota: Treasury Blacks Out Key Parts of Private…: Transparency through obscurity?
8. WalMart now says they’ll keep the DRM servers on forever: Or at least until there are fewer people to bitch about it.
9. Nonviolent Activists Are Now Terrorists: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
10. TSA Agent Ripped Off Electronics, Sold Them On eBay: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Now, where have I heard that before?
11. Artist Detained: Absolute power corrupts … hey …
12. NSA enjoys eavesdropping on US soldiers’ phone sex…: Absolute … oh, never mind. 
13. EA boss on DRM protesters: Half are pirates and the…: Come watch the game industry self-destruct!
14. American Culture Derails Girl Math Whizzes, Study Finds: Actually it finds we don’t do well with Math Whizzes of either gender, but particularly with girls. Rrg.
15. Stupid QA tricks: Colossal testing oversights: Okay, no matter how smug I get, I always have to remember my own testing oversights.
16. The New Pepsi Challenge: Guess the Smile: Pepsi’s changing its logo and all its branding and labeling stuff so as to combat a loss of market share. As opposed to, um, improving their product?
17. GPS ‘Spoofing’ Could Threaten National Security : Yet another miracle technology ruined by black hats. 
18. Firefox extension blocks dangerous Web attack:  It also block all sorts of other useful things, like the Note in Reader linklette for Google Reader. 
19. Airport security theater: I feel more secure, yes indeedy!
20. Grenades in your luggage? TSA says that’s A-OK!: Absolutely more secure than ever! You betcha!
21. Airport shoe-scanner device could prevent stupid shoe-removal…: Except we shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.
22. Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children!: People terrified by the “bride and bride” license in California. Yumpin’ Yimminy, give me a break.
23. Christian Morality and Hell: I confess that I am a Universalist in this instance — which would label me, ironically, as heading straight to the Fiery Furnace in some folks’ account.
24. How’s that novel coming along?: *SIGH*

I DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS ONE WAY OR THE OTHER, BUT IT IS KIND OF INTERESTING

1. Fringe cancelled downunder after only 5 episodes: I’ve taken Fringe off my DVR rotation. I just wasn’t looking forward to the next episode.
2. ABC Develops New V: I was only a bit into the original. I suppose there’s room for improvement, though I suspect it will simply be grimmer and grittier.
3. Newly released British UFO files debunk some sightings,…: Of course, the real Torchwood kind of stuff wouldn’t be in files they’d release, would they?
4. Goodbye Little Penguin: Berke Breathed Retires Opus: Honestly, I haven’t cared much about Breathed or Opus since, oh, about two years into Bloom County.
5. ‘Fingerprinting’ Method Tracks Mercury Emissions From…: … particular coal mines. Interesting.
6. Turbine to launch a LotRO-focused social networking…: I can see cases where this would be of value to some, though I am post-MMO-social-networking.
7. *HP classic calculator fans* might like the following…: Not that I’m an HP calculator fan, but I recognize a fellow geek tribe.

I DO LIKE THIS

1. RTD Sets New Ridership Record: That’s me! That’s me!
2. Full Terminator Season Ordered: Cool. 
3. Watchmen Footage Sneaked: Sounds very cool, though Will America Watch Watchmen? makes one dubious about its success. 
4. Associate Email Links With Gmail in Firefox (Natively): Excellent.
5. Gettyland: I so need to plan a trip to the “old” Getty Museum while out in SoCal over the holidays.

6. The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Terrorists: Look! Sane analysis of the terrorist threat! No wonder nobody’s listening to it.

7. The official name for Windows 7 will be: “Windows 7″…: Excellent. It’s about time.

8. Pirates, the Best Target Audience: Some very nice stuff here. I have at least one of these shirts on my wish list. 
9. Star Wars A to Z: Way too cool.
10. Tim Burton could direct Johnny Depp in Pirates 4: Which might be the only thing that would make me go out of my way to see it.
11. Survival of the fittest Playboy Playmate: No, really, I read it for the scientific implications!
12. London tube map video: Haven’t watched the video yet, but I’ve read enough about the London Tube Map to know it’s a fascinating tale of design, informatics, and politics. 
13. What are the Japanese up to right now?: It would be extremely cool to have something like this for the US.
14. Google Says Their Results Will Be RSS-Enabled: Everything is better in RSS.
15. Death by kisses, an unusual tombstone: And let that be a lesson to you!
16. Connecticut Supreme Court rules in favor of gay marriage: Huzzah!