White Out!

Snow's mostly tapered since this afternoon, but visibility got pretty low for a bit. Couldn't make out even the barest shapes across the Mississippi for much of the day. Now that the sun's set it's difficult to tell from inside how much snow is falling, but it's clearly less. Now there's a couple of inches on the ground, which would ordinarily be minor, but this winter constitutes a major snowstorm. Especially since for a change it's cold enough that it'll likely stick around for a few days.

Since it's been a while since my last post, here's what I've been reading online:

I've been tracking the various scandals in current circulation, of course. As I've previously mentioned, Bush's error in the espionage blowup was using the NSA's cababilities so blatantly as to get caught. Nevertheless, the NSA has always had the capacity to record most any electronic communication; CNet has a mildly technical overview describing how. Abramoff's error was also in getting caught, but his far greater sin (well, one of several) is probably perfectly legal -- aiding Congress in its age-old passtime of screwing the Native American, this time to the tune of billions of dollars in BIA revenues. Then there's the Arab world up in arms over tasteless Danish cartoons; Juan Cole outlines how things escalated to this point.

TELEGRAPH DEAD. FULL STOP.

No, seriously. Though almost nobody noticed at the time, Western Union discontinued telegraph service on January 27. Now they only send money. The Independent ran a good piece; read part of it for free from South Africa, but the original is in the pay archives. Said the technology editor of The Economist, "Imagine a news headline from 2150 that says Microsoft has just shipped its last copy of Windows." If it's any consolation, apparently telegraphese is found to live on in text messaging abbreviations.

And rounding out with a bit of humor, How to Survive a Robot Uprising sounds like a must-have reference. Shelve it with your Max Brooks collection.

Finally, and I meant to post this sooner, The BEAST has posted its annual list of the 50 Most Loathsome People in America. Cathartic for liberals (Barbara Bush, God, and Sam Alito hold adjacent slots in the top 20), but hillarious for all as American culture is the real target here. I was going to post a representative entry here, but I really, really couldn't pick just one. So go read the whole list, unless you're easily offended or something.