Five subtle changes in the event that Microsoft acquires Yahoo!

Buried in a programmer’s experience learning, loving and leaving lisp is this gem:

“Ignorant” is not a pejorative term. If you think it is you are ignorant and you need to go look the word up in a dictionary.

This is brought to mind by PZ Meyer’s debate yesterday (MP3 link) with Geoffrey Simmons, a fellow from the Discovery Institute, wherein PZ was criticized for claiming (correctly) that Simmons was ignorant about the topic at hand (transitional fossils in the evolution of whales) – a topic that Simmons brought up in the first place. It’s just too entertaining.

By far the best Improv Anywhere event I’ve seen: Frozen Grand Central. Click through and read the full article, it’s worth it.

Since foie gras is being banned in cities across the country, foodies need a new delicacy. Today I introduce that delicacy: reverse foie gras.

Stephen Colbert at the National Portrait Gallery:

“I don’t mean to brag, but as it contains three portraits, my portrait has more portraits than any other portrait in the National Portrait Gallery,” [Colbert] said, adding, “All Employees must wash hands before returning to work.”

Because, apparently, I have one too many:

(04:00:24 AM) honesty_asante: hello

(04:01:06 AM) honesty_asante: i am asante from ghana i would like to talk with you

(04:01:40 AM) honesty_asante: i am single 23 yrs and i am looking for soulmate

(04:01:53 AM) honesty_asante: i dont have any kids

(04:02:31 AM) honesty_asante: so if you are inerest you can add me so that we can chat more okay have nice day

Everyone’s linking to edge.com’s Annual Question for 2008, so I figure I might as well jump on the bandwagon. The question this year is “What have you changed your mind about [in 2007]? Why?” Of particular interest for godless liberals like myself is Clay Shirky’s answer:

Saying that the mental lives of a Francis Collins or a Freeman Dyson prove that religion and science are compatible is like saying that the sex lives of Bill Clinton or Ted Haggard prove that marriage and adultery are compatible. The people we need to watch out for in this part of the debate aren’t the fundamentalists, they’re the moderates, the ones who think that if religious belief is made metaphorical enough, incompatibility with science can be waved away. It can’t be, and we need to say so, especially to the people like me, before I changed my mind.

A coworker asked me what I’m doing for the holidays. My response?

Commiting heinous acts in the name of Lord Satan.

John Frank Weaver on the future of Catholicism:

It’s basically the same confession, but we’ll charge you more money and it’ll be a lot slower.