As predicted in this space last August, I saw a magazine stand last time I went to Costco. Not quite as cool as Overheard in New York, but I think it’s a good reason to look around once in a while.
(I’m not all that good at taking my own advice, having recently walked within fifty feet of a very dear friend who was calling my name without noticing)

Just when I was starting to wonder if maybe my iPod’s hard drive is losing its mind, I run across instructions for getting into diagnostics mode.

If Colgate does what it claims it will do with Tom’s of Maine, it should mean only that their products will be more widely available. And that’s a good thing. It’s also a good thing I (mostly) wasn’t buying it for the smug satisfaction of supporting a small company.

I’ve run across a couple different RFID-related items today: first, the RF-blocking wallet (hmm… I do have a birthday coming up); then, news that RFID tags can be used to spread malicious code.

Might have to make a Costco run tonight.

Sarah adds: there’s another list here, but it seems fairly generic, since it points out the usefulness of having anti-diarrheal medication, but not that you might need way more TP than you might usually have on hand. Sorry for that mental image. Also, check out lots of books from the library so you always have a good flu amount of entertainment.

The Grauniad suggests that the use of two stolen satellite phones to run sex and gambling services means that Iraq is on its way to Western-style democracy.

Pretty soon we’ll be able to take off the Iraqi people’s stabilisers and marvel as the line representing their electoral turnout begins its sharp descent, in exact counterpoint to the line representing the number of Temptation Island reruns being watched in the region.

France seems to be seriously considering legalizing the peer-to-peer exchange of copyright-protected material. Wow. No doubt the day after it happens, Hollywood and the record labels will close up shop and we’ll never have another movie or record again.

I was expecting to see a whole bunch of different bingo options for Sunday night’s awards show, but a quick survey reveals only M&Ms and the St Cloud Times have made the effort. I’ll be printing the M&Ms versions later this weekend.

A whole bunch of writers miss the point: the problem is not "Islamism"; the problem is religious fundamentalism of any stripe, whether it’s bombing abortion clinics, referring to fellow believers as Nazis for having the audacity to pray at a holy site, or rioting because somebody made fun of your prophet. And the problem isn’t really even fundamentalism qua fundamentalism; the problem begins when the fundamentalists want anybody outside their clique to have to live by their rules. The Amish, as far as I know, haven’t ever taken to the streets busting heads in response to their culture being misrepresented or treated with a lack of respect.