Torture of Iraq Prisoners Prompts Wave of Revulsion, declaims Scotsman.com (Scottish news direct from Scotland!), but I tell you what I find repellent. Here’s what prompts the wave of revulsion inside Matthias Thorn: that anyone thinks for a second that this is not standard military practice. Torture, rape, and humiliation are an endemic part of warfare, it’s how you keep the other guy from getting back up. These are not isolated events stemming from some bad boys and bad girls who, goodness …

I love gizmodo. I really do. I have faith in gizmodo.

But.

I’m not sure what happened, but sometime over the past two months or so, maybe even right around the time Engadget went live, the writing style of Gizmodo changed. I don’t want to tread on anyone’s feelings, and I certainly realize that writing style is a personal choice, and I hate being the asshole to say this, but: the new writing style really sucks. I like to say fuck as much as the next guy, and I like cynicism and irony, but I do not like how these tools have been applied to the write ups lately.

Apple’s released iTunes 4.5, I have a brand-spankin’-new keyboard, Spring is here, and I hooked up with a totally major hottie last night.

Friday nght my keyboard’s space bar died. Fortunately i had a spare, but that spare has a very-difficult-to-use ‘i’ key. So no updates here, and no weekly update to Samizdat til i get a replacement.

Or til i perfect the direct computer-brain nterface ‘ve been workng on so hard these many years. Oh they call me mad, but ‘ll show them. They’ll see. When i unleash my creation on the world, then we’ll see f they LAUGH, THEN WE’LL SEE WHO’S MAD, MAD I TELL YOU MAD!!!!!

The movie I’m about to watch is rated PG-13 for “brief language.”

Cuz 12-year-olds will totally flip out on your ass if you get terse with them. I’m guessing.

From the perlstyle man page:

“If you can’t remember what mnemonic means, you’ve got a problem.”

Of course I’m not just getting ready to get married. I’m also getting ready to stop being single, and that means a lot of letting go. There’s the obvious stuff, like letting go of always being in charge of how I spend my free time, letting go of how I’ve grown used to living as a long-time bachelor, and, of course, letting go of all those weekend getaways to the exotic cathouses of Fire Island, Bangkok, and St. Petersburg. There is no part of me that has second thoughts or doubts about giving up the single life, …

From Japan Today, Revolving door accidents nationwide total 270.

This would never happen in America. After the first accident, litigation would drive automatic revolving door manufacturers to post large notices on all their products that read,

“CAUTION: AUTOMATIC REVOLVING DOOR REVOLVES AUTOMATICALLY. RISK OF INJURY. CHILDREN UNDER 13 MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT. NO HOT BEVERAGES BEYOND THIS POINT.”

It seems there may be a connection between the ability of a thing to notice and the ability of a thing to become bored. But what?

Well, hot-diggity, spring’s finally arriving in Beantown. We’re just emerging from two weeks of annoyingly frequent rain, and that, mixed with the last two days of warm(ish) sunshine, has produced some bustin-out all over. Enjoyed it as much as time allowed this weekend, got outside, had a wonderful time with Gwen, and got to see the incomparable Emily Arwen Woodward Mott. You are a great friend, Emily, thanks for visiting. I hope your dear rat is ok.

It’s so great to be able to get outside! So easy to forget how much of this winter’s stress …