beth's idea sounds good, kat. And, yeah, let's do cereal this weekend.

I assume she's insane in the way that most people say their annoying loved ones are insane, not in the actual clinical diagnosis way.

Somewhere between the two I'd say. As I was recently telling juliana, I always assumed she was medicated for something. One Christmas a few years back when she was in one of her moods, I asked my brother-in-law if she had switched meds. His response? "What meds?"

Really, it explained so much.

Apparently, there's one in every generation in my mom's family. Sort of like slayers, but way less helpful in a dark alley. Unless verbal abuse is some new martial art that I'm unaware of.

ETA: Feel better Kat!

I would really, really like to stop having dreams about making out with my psychopathic ex of a decade ago, for Christ's sake. It's been like once a week recently. I blame the fact that I recently heard gossip about him, but still. I'm tired of waking up feeling like, "Ew, no, gross, ugh! You are a bad, naughty subconscious! Ew! No cake for you!"

ION: A Better Bailout Plan

[link]

Me, I dreamed I was seated at a table with some friends, only to discover that when I lifted the fringed tablecloth, it was actually a four-sided piano (!!!???) (think about those four-sided baseball fields, turned inward) and there were seeds and turds on the keys from a field-mouse infestation.

Paging Dr. Freud?

wow - and huh: [link]

Thank god, they fixed out internets overnight. I wouldn't have made it through another day.

Sue, tell Christine Congratulations. I am thrilled for her.

So. Do We Live in a Giant Cosmic Bubble?

If the notion of dark energy sounds improbable, get ready for an even more outlandish suggestion.

Earth may be trapped in an abnormal bubble of space-time that is particularly void of matter. Scientists say this condition could account for the apparent acceleration of the universe's expansion, for which dark energy currently is the leading explanation.

...

If we were in an unusually sparse area of the universe, then things could look farther away than they really are and there would be no need to rely on dark energy as an explanation for certain astronomical observations.

"If we lived in a very large under-density, then the space-time itself wouldn't be accelerating," said researcher Timothy Clifton of Oxford University in England. "It would just be that the observations, if interpreted in the usual way, would look like they were."

I foresee a plot for a sci-fi movie: A mad scientist decides to destroy the universe by sending a giant pin into space to pop the space-time bubble....

wow - and huh: [link]

I kind of found this part most interesting (but sadly, not surprising):

Politico's Jonathan Martin says there's a "still-undisclosed clip" from Couric's interviews where Palin is asked about Supreme Court decisions and was "apparently unable to discuss any major court cases" besides Roe vs. Wade--she was just silent.