I could not with a clear conscience suggest that I believe prayer, qua prayer, is likely to be an effective tool in ridding the country of the current plague of plutocrats disguising themselves as theocrats and implementing a disastrous foreign policy; but this essay nevertheless reminds us of a number of chilling facts.

The other person in my car was just last night speculating about when we’d be able to order fast food without human intervention.

I probably wouldn’t even bother with this story about the BBC making available some of its enormous archive of material, were it not for the Phrase of the Day: "shagging marmots".

Holy crap: first a photon; now, (almost exactly, hmm…) two years later, an atom. That’s some damned spooky action at a distance. Of course, with only .75 fidelity, it’ll be a while before Dr McCoy is willing to use it.

Finally, somebody has gotten serious about using a cool iPod gadget to broadcast the content of your choice to nearby FM radios.

OKCupid is a fascinating place, attracting all manner of folks. Some are drawn by the way-cool matching algorithms, others by the trademark Personality test. They have a variety of other tests available, including the How Geeky Are You? test, on which I scored a 72. Fairly geeky, but at the hundredth percentile for people of my gender, orientation, and age range. I couldn’t be prouder.

Really, it’s not my fault; it’s my genes that make my hair unmanageable.

Punkasspunk.com is on blogdex today because of the Futurama Panoramas, but everything I checked out on the site was moderately entertaining. Snackin’ Jesus especially caught my eye and my fancy (though my first thought was the monolith from 2001 rather than a vending machine).

No chance of seeing When Harry Met Sally with Alyson Hannigan. And Molly Ringwald just doesn’t have the same, well, anything.

Since you can’t get married at the Church of Elvis anymore (though you may be able to see your friend, Stephanie G. Pierce, at the Portland Saturday Market — which is also open Sundays), why not try Voodoo Doughnut (and wedding chapel)? Earlier, they were a 24-hour operation, but they seem to have cut back to evening-to-morning hours.