Waiting on Some Sign (News)

If magic was soaking your spine, you'd probably be in trouble. That's supposed to be cerebrospinal fluid, I think.

Huckabee Stands By 'Christ Comment'
I stand by pledge to hate him. It all works out.

For reference:

Mike Huckabee, a Republican relying on support from religious conservatives in Thursday's hard-fought presidential caucuses, on Sunday stood by a decade-old comment in which he said, "I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ."

Source: Raw Story

Is the Universe a Cosmic Snowflake?
Warren Ellis must be having kittens. There's a very untested theory out now that the universe is a 57 dimensional object containing 248 dimensions of symmetry. It's typically depicted as a snowflake sort of thing.

Example

Some days it really does feel like we're living in an issue of Planetary. Though it's a fairly tame one. Probably filler.

Source: The Telegraph Online

The Kids are Alright
So a new study finds that library use among adults decreases with age, not increases, and that libraries are increasingly being used as information depositories, rather than merely as stacks of books.

Which is what the university environment has been saying should happen for years and years. The purpose of a library should never have been about *books* per se; books are a storage medium for content. Libraries should be places to archive, organize, distribute and analyze that content. If they function that way, there's no reason to fear their obsolescence, unless we, you know, all snuff ourselves, Twilight Zone style, leaving just one guy with bad eyes and no large print books.

Source: Reuters

TSA: Keeping Up Your Fear Quota
So now they're rather severely restricting the number of lithium batteries you can bring with you when you travel, and making you carry all of them on your person, not checked.

(Ostensibly, one supposes, their rationale is that lithium batteries can go into thermal runaway and burst, emitting smoke and so forth. If this was the reason for banning them though, since it can happen to about all chemical batteries, why just the lithium? For that matter, why not focus your ban on the brands that have actually malfunctioned in the past, if any, rather than a blanket restriction?)

Bizarrely, though, you can check them if they're plugged into a device, and hence active, and hence, generating heat. (Wtf?)

In the best Orwellian tradition, they don't ban them by anything the end consumer can measure; they ban them by the weight of the lithium compounds inside the battery. The uncertainty and fear should keep the plebs on their toes.

The especially cynical among you might note that professional photographers and the intellectual class use these batteries when they travel, and cracking down on their use might be helpful to a government not particularly interested in free expression. Shame on you.

Source: Department of Transportation

Ohio National Guard's Biggest Deployment Since World War II
Not that we're in an unwinnable, endless conflict or anything. Go buy something! For 'Merika!

Source: The Toledo Blade

PS: Is it just me, or does this sound a bit menacing:

As a result, the Guard is beginning or strengthening:

• A youth mobilization camp that allows military children to meet other children in their same situation.

Personally, I don't like 'mobilizing' our youth. That's creepy.