Federal Source to ABC News:
We know who you're calling:
A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the
government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and
Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential
sources.
"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the
source told us in an in-person conversation.
The government can get phonecall records without a court
order, can listen to international calls without a court
order, can declare anyone they want an enemy combatant
without court review, can hold enemy combatants indefinitely,
and can transport them to foreign countries to be (not
tortured, but) subjected to discomfort and pain short of
major organ failure.
But it's okay!
The government is your friend.
Trust the government.
"ReadtheBill.org
is a new national organization dedicated to one cause:
make Congress post legislation online for 72 hours
before it is considered on the floor of Congress."
As if what laws Congress passes actually
mattered,
eh?
Poor simpletons.
And as if one's vote actually
mattered,
for that matter.
But that's all just atoms anyway, eh?
The comment-spam-trap has been getting quite a bit
of input, virtually all of it utterly boring.
It's usually some stock phrase with lots and lots of
links attached.
Two of the recent stock phrases were sort of cheery, though:
oh chil puk tra lya lya
kolyan zzot!
And one subject-line in a more traditional piece
of spam seems noteworthy:
Subject: Pony rides - 25 cents - 2 for 50!
Made me smile, at least!
*8)
I'm similarly (well, vaguely similarly) amused to note that this
very weblog is one of the top hits on
pediatric
orthodontia.
Which, given what I was saying about it,
is (hm, something) amusing.
So we certainly spend alot of time around here noting
amusing patterns that pass by in essentially random
(or at least extremely complex and opaque) data streams,
don't we?
Is there, at bottom, anything else to do, really?
Today I left my cellphone in the pocket of my bathrobe.
Which inspires nice alternate-universe thoughts about
having lounged around in my bathrobe all day (thinking
deep and useful things, of course).
In real life *8) on the other
hand, it's been really busy.
But here we are.
(But there you are.)
From Metababy-of-all-places, some wild (and some tame)
meditation-related
sound files.
(Haven't tried any of them yet myself.)
Back in the vicinity of
the Ajax toy (which we
admit we haven't been checking regularly) a reader writes
generously:
She placed the phone gently,
deliberately back in the cradle.
So that's the end of it then, she
thought. Hui-Lin had just provided
her irrefutable proof. Moved to Shanghai;
no message, no forwarding address. There
was little hope of any contact now. She
assumed that she would cry eventually.
Poor Mia!
Speaking of Mia, an(other?) reader
points out
that:
It has been two years now that Plurp has been in the Zone of
Unpredictable Connectivity. Tell Steve his readers miss him.
Hear that, Steve?
Part of (but only a tiny little, and quite necessary,
part of, I swear) my extreme busyness is self-inflicted
and Sims-related:
The Further
Adventures of Remington London
(one of the more plot-related Sims stories in
the collection), and the briefer
Mr. Big and
The Diva Redux (in which I continue in my quest
to get two non-controllable characters to fall in love).
So where did the expression
"this
is why we can't have nice things" start, anyway?
This
was the first time I had attempted a prank like this, so I
expected the control box to be locked, and the programming functions
password-protected. I was wrong.
The first AAAI
Computer Poker Competition!
"The game will be heads-up limit Texas Hold-Em".
Naturally.
And speaking of things like The Sims, various
things on and around flickr:
Second Life: a day in the sandbox,
and other sets
by one Jason Pettus.
And also relatedly,
watching TV in SecondLife.
(Are there online video games in Second Life?
That'd be fun.)
And I'm too sleepy to go any further down the rabbit
hole than that tonight.
At least in public.
*8)
Sleep well!
