Today is Fast Fiction Friday on Warren Ellis’ blog.

Hey everybody, next Saturday is Mystical Chant Day! How will you celebrate? Perhaps you could chant along to the Kalevala. Though that might not be what they meant.

I really didn’t want to post anything about Rumsfeld, because I feel that all the comments I would make would be too terribly obvious to anyone with an ounce of sense. So I’ll just let this statement stand on its own, apart from my eyes attempting to roll entirely out of my head.

“Mr Rumsfeld told reporters that, while he was willing for all such pictures to be released, lawyers were advising against it on the grounds that such images could be construed as degrading to the prisoners – and thus be in violation of the Geneva Conventions. “

If you are lucky enough to have access to the New York Times Historical Backfile database, you may notice some gaps in coverage. Rather than the usual culprits, the gaps are themselves historic:
Aug 10 – Nov 5 1978 (Pressman’s Strike)
Sep 17 – Oct 10 1965 (Newspaper Guild strike
Dec 9 1962 – Mar 31 1963 (ITU strike)
Dec 12 – Dec 28 1958 (Delivers’ strike)
Nov 30 – Dec 8 1953 (Photo-engravers’ strike)
No Sunday issues until April 21, 1861.

I read Budget Living from time to time, and end up finding many items that have previously popped up in the blogosphere, and many interesting looking web links that I then have to laboriously type in. It makes one wish there was a good profit model for an online magazine.
That Forties Guy
Soda Pop Stop
Chico Hot Springs
Global Food Company
Maine Goodies
Hometown Favorites
MexGrocer
Scandinavian Spice
Daily Candy
Instant Living

A thin film to pixelize your tv, which is cool since the other pixelizers are big, bulky plastic items. I just need to figure out how to DIY such an item.

A short backgrounder on Lorem Ipsum, plus its sibling Etaoin Shrdlu.

Nurses found guilty of infecting almost 400 children with HIV in buh-wacky court case that has movie of the week written all over it (Lifetime if it weren’t in Libya).

I love vending machines and wish there were more cool vending options in this country. If I were Lost in Translation, I would take a stroll with a pocketful of money and see what I could buy from machines and still have enough money to take a taxi back to the hotel.

T9 is interesting, but more so when you get a glimpse of its guts when it guesses something unexpected.

And on an oddly similar note, crappy scrabble draws.