I'm with Steph. Plus it's keeping me from killing people at work. (If there are checkboxes with different choices on a bunch of questions, which you seem to have been working with just fine until it comes to gender, where you write 2 in the box. Why?!? What does that mean!?! Are you trying to tell me that even with a name like Jonathan, you are twice the woman?).

I think I'm going to have a smoke.

A few random thoughts on the whole thing:

It should be a big public relations black eye for the Turner media empire if it isn't bankrolling the defense.

It would be a big public relations plus for the Turner media empire to make a sizable charitable contribution to a fine, upstanding Boston charity of its choice. Donating a thousand Lite Brite sets to a children's charity would not be the best choice.

Given the contemporary zeitgeist, I can see how someone could consider the Lite Brite thingies to be terrorist-related. However, this is more a commentary on the contemporary zeitgeist than on the Lite Brite thingies.

Zeitgeist is a pretentious word, but sometimes you can't think of any other appropriate word.

If those two are terrorists, a lot of people who currently aren't widely considered terrorists should be.

until it comes to gender, where you write 2 in the box. Why?!?

Hermaphrodite?

From tommy's link- Hee. They're only answering reporter's questions about 70's haircuts.

Except that they wrote 2 in the box next to female. Wouldn't a hermaphrodite check both boxes?

It should be a big public relations black eye for the Turner media empire if it isn't bankrolling the defense.

I think it's a huge marketing coup, actually. For their demographic, there won't be any negative fallout. The people that would watch Adult Swim will consider this to be a huge, overreaction and it will reinforce that AS is hip, edgy and noteworthy. (As marketers measure these things.)

The judge will likely toss the charges and they get to look like media outlaws and Boston gets to look stuffy and old-farty.

You know, I love TurboTax, but six emails with my "ID"? Starting in December, when I don't get my freaking tax info until the end of January? Please stop. I have an inbox that holds things for more than a day. It's fucking remarkable technology, and it's even searchable.

ION, I love that this Boston story is all about Inignokt, who is laughing his ass off on the MOOON! It's just the kind of thing he would do. Also, adult swim is pretty cool and pretty responsive as a media organization, I have no doubt they won't embarrass themselves. Can't necessarily speak for Turner or TW, but adult swim actually sincerely apologized last night on tv.

Scary economic news: ECONOMY OF FEAR

Via Max, the Congressional Budget Office has a new report out on income volatility. CBO Director Peter Orszag makes the point that although the broad economy has gotten more stable over the past few decades (fewer big booms and busts), at the individual level it's gotten less stable. This is especially true for high school dropouts, who have considerably more income instability than more educated workers.

The chart on the right, adapted from the report, shows one of the reasons that people feel so economically insecure these days even though broad trends seem benign. Consider: Since the mid-80s the headline unemployment rate has been both steady and moderately downward trending. So why is fear of unemployment seemingly greater than ever?

Answer: because the consequences are so dire. The risk of losing your job may not actually be greater than in the past, but if you do lose your job the odds of a catastrophically long period without work are much greater than in the past. It's one thing to be afraid of losing your job for a few months; it's quite another to (justifiably) be afraid of losing your job for six months or more. Healthcare is part of it too.

I love the NEVER FORGET sign and am considering posting it in my cube at work.

Seriously, the people who really panicked was the news media. The police and government were doing their jobs... it's just that sometimes, your job is to be Very Paranoid and subsequently Look Very Foolish.

On the whole, I'm pleased to find out that my city actually does have a disaster plan that can spring into action swiftly.

I guess we can talk about the pedophile posing as a 12 year old with the assistance of three other sexual predators living together in Arizona -- that is a real scary situation.