also laughed—is very wrong but also laughed—can't believe I laughed, but each time it comes to mind I laugh and laugh

It also took me to a Monty Python place. "Notice they don't so much fly as plummet."

Plus the sound effects.... "Baaaahhhh--thud."

eta:

It is my belief that these sheep are laborin' under the misapprehension that they're birds. Observe their behaviour. Take for a start the sheeps' tendency to 'op about the field on their hind legs (off-screen baa-ing). Now witness their attempts to fly from tree to tree. Notice that they do not so much fly as plummet.

[link]

No wonder we're so easily distracted:

"Apparently our thirst for novelty begins in the eye itself," says Markus Meister, the Jeff C. Tarr Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "Our eyes report the visual world to the brain, but not very faithfully. Instead, the retina creates a cartoonist's sketch of the visual scene, highlighting key features while suppressing the less interesting regions."

These findings provide evidence that the ultimate goal of the visual system is not simply to construct internally an exact reproduction of the external world, Meister and his colleagues write in Nature. Rather, the system seeks to extract from the onslaught of raw visual information the few bits of data that are relevant to behavior. This entails the discarding of signals that are less useful, and dynamic retinal adaptation provides a means of stripping from the visual stream predictable and therefore less newsworthy signals.

ION, the A/C is on so high in this office that my fingers are almost too cold to type.

If you could go anywhere in the world this weekend, where would you go?

I think I would go to Curacao.

I wonder if cricket will sneak in?

Baseball and softball were tossed out of the Olympics for the 2012 London Games on Friday. The action by the International Olympic Committee marked the first time it had dropped any sports from the Summer Games in 69 years. The committee then rejected the five sports wanting to get in.

I thought the Sully thing was funny, but more for the meta. He was the Perfect Injured Patrolman on H:LOTS and everybody's bitch on Oz, so, funny.(I do think Denis Leary may be obsessed by the Izzard Experience in a different way than people here.) As for the New Ghost, am I an asshole if I thought "Hey, he's a dead guy, too."?

the premise that one can lose the right to live, but has to do so by their own action really that inconsistent?

An interesting way to put the question. If thought of in those terms, no, it's not inconsistent. But, just going by speaking with pro-lifers in my own family, many of them really don't view it in that light. According to them, fetuses deserve life, regardless of the circumstances of their conception or the mother's condition. Criminals don't, regardless of whether they are mentally impaired, saddled with bad representation in court, or penalized by having the wrong color of skin. (When I point out to them the percentages of black vs. white criminals on death row, as well as how many of those released from prison after DNA and other evidence has come to light have been of color, they just say that if you're convicted, you're guilty. Period.)

But I have had a limited number of people to speak with about such matters (my mom told me a long time ago not to argue social issues with certain people in my family). I'm sure that I'm dealing with a very restricted viewpoint, and should probably read up on others before making any other comments. Sorry about mentioning it!

stumbles into thread, flails around confusedly

I just got off the phone with my mentor/cool co-worker from the last contract gig I had here at the Evil Empire. She informed me that the hiring manager on her team is waiting for my resume in relation to the open full-time position they have, and I should give him a call to say hi. She apparently told him I was thinking about applying, and he was quite pleased at the idea.

flail, flail, flail

Bob Novak seems to think Rehnquist will retire as soon as Bush gets back to DC tonight.

I would go to Hilton. But since I'm going anyway in a week anyway, maybe this weekend I'd go to Akumal.