The US military has launched an email infowar/propaganda effort aimed at senior officials in Iraq. The email is reported to contain a guide to defecting, and urges officials to turn weapons secrets over to the US.

Writer’s Embellishment Assignment: write an email propaganda message of your own, to the officials of your choice. I’m betting you can do better. Would you write an emotional appeal? A highly-reasoned argument? Social engineering? Threats? Poetry?

While looking through the library catalog, I came across the subject heading “Machines a pain.” Turns out it’s a Canadian book on bread machine recipes, with (probably vendor-provided) bilingual cataloging. Which means that if you’re looking for books on pain, you may find books on pain. In similar news, Montrealers have a cool name for ATMs.

“Flying Saucers for Everybody!” The past promise of the future, courtesy of Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Mechanics.

While looking for something else in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:

To throw a sprat to catch a mackerel: To give a trifle or make a concession, in the hope of a bigger return.

A few easily choked children and elderly persons have led to the recall of the delicious conjac gel candy! Dammit! Now I will have to smuggle it over the border from Canada. Wait a minute, you didn’t hear me say that.

“The Way of the Samurai is found in death. Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead.”

Here’s a few more ways to die.

Either 90 percent of the public are fuckin’ retards, or I’m in a bad mood today.

In retarded news from Tennessee, people are stupid or possibly just cruel. But note entertaining use of “Y’all” in a serious news story.

Basic Hip Digital Oddio looks like a good complement to Cool and Strange Music Magazine (one of my favorites!).

I’m looking for more information on the Five Flavors in Asian culture, as linked to the five elements, internal organs, colors, etc. Here’s a (sorta) informative look at the Five Flavors in Korean cookery.

First, a book set in the present, now Wm. Gibson is on the net. Today is officially the future.