Loki pulled that this morning. So now he's loose with Devi in the apartment. He's bigger than her now, he should be fine. Or he'll spend the whole day in a litterbox or cat cube. I wish he'd figure out he's now bigger and faster.

I stayed home from work today for no particular reason other than I just couldn't face another day in the world.

Nora, sorry to hear the world is getting you down.

I have forgotten that today is PT conferences. I have to drop stuff off at the fucking consignment sale. AND we have an accreditation visit tomorrow.

Um, universe, fuck off. I'm not laughing.

I hope it all goes as smooth as possible for you.

Oh my god, in the category of people are stupid: lease your body to advertisers and make money?

Ugh.

Huh. Pilot who paused to pray in emergency gets 10 years

A Tunisian pilot who paused to pray instead of taking emergency measures before crash-landing his plane, killing 16 people, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Italian court along with his co-pilot.

The 2005 crash at sea off Sicily left survivors swimming for their lives, some clinging to a piece of the fuselage that remained floating after the ATR turbo-prop aircraft splintered upon impact.

A fuel-gauge malfunction was partly to blame but prosecutors also said the pilot succumbed to panic, praying out loud instead of following emergency procedures and then opting to crash-land the plane instead trying to reach a nearby airport.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating women in technology

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was born on 10th December 1815, the only child of Lord Byron and his wife, Annabella. Born Augusta Ada Byron, but now known simply as Ada Lovelace, she wrote the world's first computer programmes for the Analytical Engine, a general-purpose machine that Charles Babbage had invented.

Ada had been taught mathematics from a very young age by her mother and met Babbage in 1833. Ten years later she translated Luigi Menabrea's memoir on Babbage's Analytical Engine, appending notes that included a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the machine - the first computer programme. The calculations were never carried out, as the machine was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software.

Understanding that computers could do a lot more than just crunch numbers, Ada suggested that the Analytical Engine "might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent." She never had the chance to fully explore the possibilities of either Babbage's inventions or her own understanding of computing. She died, aged only 36, on 27th November 1852, of cancer and bloodletting by her physicians.

Pilot who paused to pray in emergency gets 10 years

Kudos for his sustaining faith, but if there was ever the perfect illustration of why religious scruples should come in second to professional conduct, this is it.

Mysterious Celebrity Tattoos

Aside from the fact that they're all hideous, we're left scratching our head wondering who the "celebrities" are in these strange tattoos. Click the pictures to see our guess and take your own!...

The New Orleans paper pointed out today that Jindal's comments on volcano monitoring, which were already pretty stupid, look especially moronic now that a volcano in Alaska has ERUPTED.